A Ghost in the Twilight
by Maniacal Laughter Inc
Summary: Okay I've found the problem, i accidently substituted chapter three instead of two and called it two instead of three. Now i just has to fix it...
1. Prologue

-Any man can overcome adversity. If you truly want to test a man's character, give him power-

Abraham Lincoln

* * *

><p>Prologue<p>

The Vixen, The Ghost, and the way things are

**Six years ago**

Shortly after the attack on the Lylat System known as the Anglar Blitz, life attempted to return to normal. The planets of the Lylat system slowly rebuilt, slowly resurrecting what life had been taken from their cities, among the happiest individuals in all of Lylat however, was one Fox McCloud. The young mercenary had managed to convince his lost lover to return to him after a bit of persuasion, he managed to remind Krystal of the love they shared for each other, the peace was not to last however. The latent feeling that the young vixen harbored were like a ticking time bomb, she hated constantly waiting for the time when he would finally send her away again...several months after returning to Corneria the vixen came forward. She could no longer lie to herself, she wanted to stay, but, at the same time she could not bring herself to stay with someone that did not want her around. McCloud almost instantly feel into a mote of depression from which there seemed to be no return, Star Fox fell into ruin, the Great Fox was taken in order to pay debts the team had accumulated over their long past. The Fox's Den was repossessed by the Cornerian Military; McCloud quickly found himself moving from one place to another. As the years moved by he found that even the citizens he'd once risked his life for slowly began to forget about him, placing their faith in the hands of newer, younger mercenaries, and even the vixen that had broken his heart when she decided to return to her former position with Star Wolf...

News of the reformed Star Wolf's fame and accomplishments began to spread almost instantly after their pardon from the Lylat's most wanted list. Wolf set his team through a very strenuous program, they trained much more often, they were supplied new gear and weapons, near upgraded Wolfens. Even Leon developed a fan club in those days, however, despite the fact that Krystal had gained a new sort of popularity. At first the slings and arrows were nearly too much for her to bare, but slowly the people began to accept her unparalleled flight capabilities. She found a new love in life, though rumor about Lylat was that her new love was one Panther Caruso, truth be told her only love...was her work...

Oddly enough it seemed to be the only animal that still cared enough to continuously check on McCloud was none other than his childhood pal, Slippy toad. This was the same animal that reported him missing one hot summer day, from his parents' beach house in Papetoon. Most Lylatians that knew of McCloud's unstable condition gave in to the idea of suicide; the young toad was appalled at how quickly everyone simply passed off the young fox as dead, instantly willing to move on. It seemed like even Falco Lombardi was willing to give into the popular belief, it seemed the only person other than Slippy who still believed that something was wrong, was Katt Monroe. However in the passing years something even began to change in her mind, and six years is a long time to change a person's mind. Fox McCloud became a memory, one that most people were quick to forget. With the efforts of the new and improved Star Wolf in the mix, none bothered, none cared, they were taken care of, and with that simply allowed life to go on...

**Present Day**

**Corneria City, Wolf's Den**

**2100hrs July 29****th**

The Fox's Den quickly came up for lease, after all with no Star Fox the tower had no means of being paid for, and it only seemed right for Star Wolf to be close to the main body they were paid to protect. The tower was no different than before, spare the fact that the five story tower now carried the black and red colors, as well as the logo of Star Wolf. Inside, a young vixen stood near a large mirror, her nightly routine of exercises had only just finished. Her figure had become far more muscular than it had been with Star Fox, though her physique took away very little of her feminine beauty. She had allowed her hair to grow out long, now reaching past her shoulders. Every night was the same for her, she completed her nightly routine of exercises, most of the time in little more than her bra and underwear before a warm shower and going to bed. Warm showers however did little to soothe her mind anymore, it used to be that the hot waters reminded her of Cerinia. Back home she would spend hours in a day at the hot springs near her village. After her shower, the blue furred vixen stepped out of the familiar, plain bathroom brushing her hair while she walked toward the bra and underwear that she left sitting on her small double mattress bed. Her ear twitched against the air, it was not from a sound, rather a twitch that had developed from years of hearing the thoughts of other animals. Folding her arms over her bear breasts and turning to looking at her bedroom door the vixen sighed...

"Caruso..." She called, "...I gave you the courtesy of a five count last time, this time you only get two. If you're still in here I promise the only thought on your mind for the next three months will be nothing but gay porn."

Suddenly the small closet near her bedroom door burst open and a black panther stumbled out backing toward the door, "Anything but that I'll leave..." He said holding out his hands defensively before slipping out the door that slid shut behind him.

As she turned again she sighed angrily, "Panther I know you're still there."

She felt his mind quickly retreat, and after sliding into her black lace panties, and began to fasten her clean bra about her body a familiar voice came through the small communicator that lay on her nightstand, "Sorry about that Krystal...I tried to warn him but, that bastard's got a perpetual fixation on your tail."

Krystal sighed as she sat on the edge of her bed, "I know..." She replied, "...normally I'd be flattered but, after what happened with..." She paused refraining from mentioning his name, "...after what happened, I just want nothing to do with another male."

A light chuckle of Wolf's voice came through the communicator, "This mean the pup turned out over to the other team? You're not into girls now are you?"

Krystal laughed, "Wolf, don't be disgusting. Besides Panther is a bit to flamboyant for me. I suppose I also still think about..."

Wolf sighed, "Yeah so do I. Look, I didn't want to bring this up but, I have a job that I think only requires the two of us. You know the usual routine, just give me the sign if something isn't right and we'll find out what he's hiding. Six plots against the council in less than a year, something is going bad. Crime has been escalating on Kew ever since the Hot Rodders decided they'd spring back up, last I heard they were trying to turn Lombardi into one of them again."

Krystal sighed as she fell back onto her bed laying there staring at the ceiling, "They're just going to send us after this Ghost person again. We looked, we've searched every scene that we come across and there is no sign of anyone having been there."

"That's why they call him the Ghost of Lylat, Krystal." Wolf chuckled, "just make sure that you get a good amount of sleep. Tomorrow is gonna be hell, we have to go do some more work for those pricks at Vector Industries too, apparently they've got a new line of toys they want us to test in the field for them again."

Krystal yawned, "I see..." She said, "...good night Wolf."

As she lay there the vixen thought back, when she'd first met O'Donnell he was cold, cruel, and above all he seemed completely heartless; but, when all else failed he was the very first person to welcome her. He demanded nothing of her, only that she did her very best at everything regarding the team, he did not threaten her with abandonment, and he did not put her at second to anything...she was simply a part of the team, just as much as any other member. It seemed odd that he would be the single animal of the three other member to reach out to her those first few weeks; he alone helped her through the agonizing depression of what had happened between herself and McCloud, and without asking or thinking that she owed him anything in return. Panther had of course been there for her, or so he said, though at most time he was simply looking for a reason to hug her at any given opportunity...a game that the telepath was very quick to pick up on. Wolf had become one of her closest friends, while Panther became her only source of entertainment with his constant attempt at getting her in bed. She knew that she should have been happy at least in those last days but, even with everything seeming to go her way for once, something still weighed heavily on her mind, keeping her laying there most of the night, watching the thoughts in her mind dance across the ceiling of her room...

**0600hrs**

**July 29****th**

Early mornings were a routine in Star Wolf, training was held every other day. Krystal would always seem to draw up sparing with Panther, a time she detested as the fact was he was particularly well versed in hand to hand combat, and more than one time in a match would manage to grab her buttocks or breast. Often enough the match would become a fight that dragged out Krystal's real Cerinian potential leaving the hormone driven feline laying in a small puddle of his own blood and self-respect. This morning was different however, instead of her scheduled bout with the feline, that she was actually looking forward to after his earlier attempts as spying on her while she dressed, Wolf was found knocking on the door to her room. She quickly rolled out of bed finding her way to her clothing; in this case no more than a gray tank top, and a pair of loose fitting black jeans, with her standard black boots, not too much unlike the ones worn by Fox McCloud some time ago. Across her lower back was holstered a familiar looking golden staff, who's ruby fitted headpiece was now tipped with a foot long, fanged spear head. Wolf often wondered why the staff was so important but, then again being the only reminder she ever saw of her people, family, and home, he often found himself answering the question for himself. Krystal wasn't too surprised with the early time he'd decided to wake her, he always had been an early bird...

As it was always with Wolf, he wasted little to no time getting himself and the vixen to their destination. Krystal was however surprised to find that they'd actually appeared outside of Nantech Industries. Nantech was very seldom mentioned in public, mostly because the company dealt with technology borrowed from the humans, a race the council had decided was still unready to join the Trinity Accord. Because of the utter panic it would cause knowing what the company dealt with, most often it was only handled by the military and higher links in the Council's chain. Mostly, as the company's name implies, it deals with nano-technology, a form of advanced bio-engineering and advanced robotics that most common day scientists could scarcely fathom. It was no surprise to Krystal that Slippy had recently spent a year or so there. However there was one familiar face that she was not used to seeing there. In front of the doors was standing a slightly tall feline, her pink fur was highly maintained and carried an gorgeous luster that most animals didn't seem to bother with, her bright blue eyes only seemed to enhance her naturally lovely face and brilliant smile as she welcomed the vixen into a friendly embrace...

"Katt...where have you been?" Krystal asked, "I haven't seen you in years."

The Zonessian sighed, "It's...complicated. When Fox first disappeared I went looking for him, " She said shaking her head, "I didn't find much," She replied in a depressed tone of voice, "anyhow. How have things been going as Corneria's new superhero team of Mercenaries?"

Wolf chuckled lightly, "I wouldn't go that far Miss Monroe. Where is that big mouthed boyfriend or yours?"

Katt snorted angrily, "Don't get me started on Lombardi...moron wouldn't know a good thing if it bit him on his ass."

Krystal chuckled into the back of her hand, "She has bitten his ass..."

Wolf smiled shaking his head lightly, "Monroe, I've known you long enough to know that you would do your best to look another way."

The feline sighed, "I have...I hold up two jobs now and I love ever minute of it."

Krystal cocked her head, "I thought you were just a lingerie model now."

Katt chuckled, "Okay three jobs; I do my job as a merc still, but, when I'm not I'm a dancer at a local fella's club, and on top of that yeah I do some modeling here and there. I believe I tried to get you into the profession too."

Krystal shook her head, "I tried Katt...but, those camera men had some really foul minds. You know that one of them was fantasizing about raping me. Then again back then I wasn't even sure what it meant, I thought he was just lusting over me," She said, "but that's enough of that why are you here? What's going on Katt?"

Katt sighed as they entered the large building in front of them; the main lobby was full of chairs and recliners or the guests, the floors were covered with delicate red carpets, and the halls were lined with potted trees that were lovely but, nowhere near too big for the area. Several animals moved about the area, making their ways back and fourth from their jobs or appointments in the building. The two females found a place to sit while Wolf made his way to the red feathered receptionist that sat behind the desk in the center of the room...

Wolf found his way back to his own seat, "So...you know anything about this?"

Katt sighed, "You two have heard of this guy calling himself The Ghost of Lylat haven't you?" The two simply looked to each other then nodded to her, "apparently he stole a piece of modified human technology from this place. The CEO here sent me more details than you two because there was a chance that I wasn't going to make it this morning. He said that the technology that was stolen is a three part system; one part biological engineering, one part nano-fusion technology, and one part advanced weapon technology. Now this Ghost guy is good," She said, "this facility goes three miles underground, and yet he managed to get in, take what he wanted and get out before anyone knew something was missing. They have some surveillance footage but, even the footage doesn't show a clear image of him. It's almost like this guy really is a Ghost...anytime a camera even looks in his direction it just..."

"Snows out..." A voice said causing the three to look to a middle aged looking white wolf in a while lab coat.

"Hello Verne..." Wolf said, "...how's Sasha been?"

The scientist sighed, "She left me two years ago, said that my work was too important and she didn't want to get in my way. Apparently it was already hard enough on her and the kids being labeled an O'Donnell, she wasn't going to take the fact that I was ignoring my family, or so she said."

Krystal looked between the two, apart from the fact that this other wolf was snow white from head to toe, he was almost Wolf's exact double, "You have a brother?" She asked.

Wolf nodded, "Yeah, family sort of broke up when dad kicked. Pretty boy Verne here takes after mom...I got the short end of the stick ended up looking like our old man. Speaking of which..." He said turning to Verne, "...I didn't see you at mom's funeral."

Verne sighed lowering his head, "I just couldn't do it Wolf..." He replied, "...not mom. I couldn't see her like that."

Wolf shook his head, "Hmm...maybe Sasha was right," He said, "either way lets see this footage, and I want details on the stuff that was taken, in depth details..."

Verne nodded, "Right...if you three would place follow me."

Krystal looked to Wolf, "Why do you need so many details?"

Wolf looked back to her, "Think about it. Nobody would dare sneak into an underground facility like this one to go after just any piece of tech, there's something more behind this and I want to know what it is. You remember what I asked you last night?"

"_Of course I do I've been in his mind since he took us from our seats."_ Krystal's voice responded in the back of Wolf's mind.

"Good...keep at it," He whispered, "he's my brother...well he's not the most honest person in Lylat."

Katt sighed, "Seems to be a family trait wouldn't you say?"

Wolf cast an eye at the feline, "Don't start with me Monroe." He chuckled.

Leading them through the building, and down an elevator that took roughly several minutes; Katt found the trip down the elevator to nearly be claustrophobic, but, then again Krystal didn't seem to like it too much herself. When the doors finally did open, the two ladies were the first to exit the lift, only to find themselves in a large hallways that led through the facility. Verne lead them through the halls one after another, like some horrible labyrinth from which there was no real escape. However, their white furred guide led them into a massive room where several other animal stood by, some were clearly military, while others were investigators with the LCI (Cornerian Central Intelligence) realizing what was going on in this one room caused Wolf to bend toward Krystal...

"I told you it was bigger than he made it out to be."

Verne quickly led the three mercenaries to a small viewing booth where they began to watch the video of the robbery, however, there was only a view of the animal's back. He was slightly tall, and well built, but, wore a strange sort of long white trench coat with a hood that covered his head. At the center of the back of the coat, was a symbol not much unlike a large circle with a straight line breaking it in half. Krystal instantly froze...

"Wait..." She said, "...rewind this. Back to when he enters the room, just before if starts to go snowy."

Verne placed his fingers on the screen dragging his fingertips to the left, causing the scene to play backward, "There." Krystal quickly said causing him to pause the screen, "I know that symbol..." She said tapping the image of the animal's coat, "...from Cerinia."

Wolf looked to the sapphire vixen, "Are you telling me that this guy is a Cerinian?"

Krystal nodded, "It is a definate possibility, " She nodded to him before looking back to the screen, "there were four escape ships when the planet was destroyed, one was caught in the aftermath, and I have never seen anything of the other three. I was loaded onto a personal ship by my parents to make sure that I was off the planet before it happened."

"Krystal...?" Katt asked placing her hand on the vixen's shoulder, realizing that something was wrong, "what does that symbol mean?"

Krystal shook her head, "Vengeance."

_To be continued..._

* * *

><p>Maniacal Laughter Inc<p>

This Fic is a joint production of:

The Eyes Under the Stairs

The Footsteps in the Darkness


	2. Episode 1

**A/N:**_ The members of our production would like to fully apologize...at the moment it is taking SkullFox forever to fill in his part of the fic which is causing a bit of a backlash on my own endevors ^^ however, he has managed to get some things my way recently. Thank you all for being patient and without further adue here's Episode 1..._

* * *

><p><strong>~Episode I~<strong>

"_Every man is guilty of the good he did not do" _– Voltaire

**July 29****th**

**0230hrs**

**Great Wolf**

The Great Wolf was specially constructed, at first O'Donnell had intended for it to be a surprise for Star Fox; a mothership to counter a mothership...it instead became a reminder of a healthy rivalry that ended far too soon. Wolf had still not decided on how he was going to inform the others of what it was Verne had told him off to himself. Krystal had found that the ship felt alien to her, every night was full of peace, something that the Great Fox never gave her. The walls of her room were specially designed to block out any kind of psionic waves, making certain that no thoughts outside her room could make it inside to her, and her own mind could not roam beyond her room at night. It was a strange peace, one that she had grown to enjoy...unfortunately this gave her thoughts time to manifest...

The sapphire furred vixen shot upright in a silent scream reaching out, to whom, she could not recall. The dream was sudden and intense, incredibly realistic. Burying her face in her hands for a moment, she took a steadying breath while wiping the frigid sweat from her face and hair. The nightmares had become so much more frequent in the past six years; she couldn't remember the last time she'd experienced a calm night's sleep. Krystal quickly rolled out of bed and headed for her shower, not bothering to remove the underwear she wore before climbing into her shower, turning on the hot water. Krystal leaned forward allowing the hot waters of the shower to roll down her body, removing her shivering fits brought on by the cold sweat she'd woken up in. It was funny, she usually recalled her dreams immediately after waking up, but, every time she had these types of nightmares they were gone from her mind almost instantly. She found herself returning to her room where she donned only a pair of training shorts and a sports bra, not caring to be too overdressed for someone that would most likely head back to bed sometime soon. She sighed deeply as she headed out through the halls of the large ship; a walk always seemed to calm her nerves after such a night. However heading down the halls the vixen was brought to a stop near the door to the training room, where she could hear the sounds of someone intently training. Upon stepping through the door, the vixen found a familiar gray wolf swinging away, punches and kicks that would decimate another fighter. However, the holographic image of a light brown furred fox stood there for an instant before the match faded and the wolf walked toward a small bench...

"James..." Wolf said taking a heavy breath, "...no matter what I tried, I could never beat him. Fox was the same way, I guess I got a little obsessed with it all," He said to the floor, not bothering to acknowledge her at all, "you ever look back on your life, and wish that you could have done it all different? That you wouldn't have fucked up the few things that you knew you'd done wrong?"

Krystal looked at the old wolf for a moment, "You still think about Fox's father?"

Wolf nodded, "You know...I've never told anyone this before but, Vixy and I, we dated once...few years before she met James. It might have been a little uncalled for, well a lot uncalled for..." He chuckled, "...I never even asked her why she left me for James...I just sort of went off on him. I guess even though I told myself all that time that I didn't care about her anymore, I couldn't even convince myself."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Is that how you lost the eye?"

Wolf chuckled, "Everyone always thinks the worst about this eye..." He replied placing a hand over the missing optic, "...one of my fist missions as a merc...turns out to be this assassin named Kurrai. Information is crossed or left out and I find out the hard way that he likes to use blades and an experimental stealth module that was stolen from Vector Industries. The eye itself was actually cut directly in half on the inside of my skull. Doctors said they'd seen nothing like it...they were amazed at the guy's precision..." He said, "...anyhow what are you doing up? I thought you headed for bed early..." He paused, "...nightmares again?"

Krystal lightly nodded, "Wolf...I'd like to think this is as good a time as any to thank you. For..." She paused with a light laugh, "...pretty much everything. Even though you rarely have an answer to any of my problems, you always seem to be here to listen."

Wolf shook his head, "Listen, kid. When you came to me, McCloud had taught you so well that you were nearly a better pilot than I am. I'm really sorry about what happened between you and him, but, there isn't a whole lot I can do or say about it. To be honest, there was a little part of me that just wanted to see the pup marry you, settle down. Even when we were against each other you were always a sweet kid, you didn't want to hurt anyone and you didn't want them to hurt you. I guess I was hoping that Fox would learn something from you...instead all of this happened."

Krystal sighed as she took a seat next to him, "I was sort of hoping the same thing. I have to admit that when he asked me to come back to Star Fox...there was a part of me that wanted to cry. I loved him, even though it was something we were taught on Cerinia never to do. Every day after I went back to him though, he acted like nothing had ever happened and like we could just start over. He wouldn't bring up what had happened and he trailed off any time anyone else wanted to."

Wolf patted her back, "Listen, I feel like you and I have developed a sort of a friendship over the years. It's one that I'd like to keep..." He said, "...just promise me that all of this isn't going to get in your way when we get to our destination, because this is some serious shit."

"Don't worry Wolf..." Krystal replied smiling at him, "...I will keep my mind in the fight when everything comes down," She laughed, "you know with all this quality time between us, that sick jerk Caruso is starting to think we're an item."

Wolf shook his head, "I'm a hair too old for someone your age," He laughed, "besides that; you may be beautiful, smart, and strong, but, you're not my type kid. I think he's just a little jealous that we actually get along, and that I tend to be closer to you then he can get. Well..." He laughed, "...when you aren't beating the piss out of him."

"If he would only stop grabbing my tail..." Krystal retorted.

Wolf chuckled, "No I understand," He replied, "just take it easy on him alright? He has a serious problem. Even though he is a pervert, we need him…" Wolf sighed as he stood up, "look, you should really be getting some rest this is going to be a long trip yet, you're not much use if you are too exhausted to fight when the time comes…understand?"

Krystal nodded, "Yeah I understand," She said, "I'll try to get some sleep, just promise you'll do the same."

Wolf nodded, "Yeah, I will."

**July 29th **

**1300hrs**

**Planet Moon Rittera**

The hangers on Rittera were always something to be remembered; along with the many mechanics that kept to the hangers hoping to find a docking ship that needed repairs, there were many females known for their pleasurable services to any animal that cared to pay for what they had to sell. Many males and females came to the planet for it's, questionable background; it was a planet who's society was born in lust and pleasure. Originally the small moon of Rittera was once a storehouse for slave traders who dealt more explicitly in slave meant to feed a lustful mind. Eventually finding itself outside of the Trinity Accord's rules and regulations, Rittera found itself able to keep it's reputation and it's background in tact despite that Accords' negative outlook on slavery. Luckily a small act passed shortly after some years or a growing population, as well as a thriving economy of it's own, and a glowing reputation; Rittera found itself being accepted into the Trinity Accord shortly after the Anglar Blitz, when it's economic fruition was most sorely needed. To make peace with the headman of Rittera, an act was passed giving a thriving economy based on an illegal act, in this case prostitution, right to withhold it's source of economic growth, so long as such did not disrupt acts and rights of the practitioners involved. It was part of what made Rittera's fame climb so rapidly, the ability for any animal in the known galaxy to give into their most primal urges.. It was a place that Krystal had always hated. The first time she had been there the sheer volume of pleasure and mix of other thoughts and feelings flowing through the area were enough to almost instantly bring the young telepath to her knees. She'd long since learned to better block out such rushes of thought and emotion. It was however difficult to muster the amount of concentration that it took to keep her abilities in check; it was something that she did not care, or long for. The young vixen's blocking out these thoughts and emotions constantly left her with little more then a massive headache. It was as the small group of herself, Panther, and Wolf made their way to a local hotel that Krystal pinched the space between her eyes with a deep groan…

"Headaches again?" Wolf asked.

Krystal only nodded, "Panther knows a good cure." Caruso smiled.

Krystal cast a dark glare in the feline's direction, "Panther…" She said, "….start this now, and the threat still stands."

Wolf laughed out loud…

Caruso chuckled, "You two conspire against me?"

Krystal growled lowly as her eyes narrowed causing Caruso to cry out as he slapped his hands onto the sides of his head; the feline quickly turned about rushing off back toward the ship. Wolf's eyes went wide as he looked to the vixen with a questioning gaze…

She growled massaging the space between her eyes again, , "I warned him."

Without questioning it, the vixen and wolf made their ways a short distance down the street from the hanger to a small hotel they'd booked their next few days in. It was a very rustic little place; modest was a truly great word for it. It was small, lovingly decorated, and masterfully maintained. The building itself was only half the size of most of the buildings around it, however, as any place on Rittera would have. The lobby was lined with an abundance of young ladies of many different species; the ladies were well dressed, and most of them were even what Krystal would have called attractive. Most of them did their best to entice Wolf, after all the more money they would make the more favor they would have in the community, she found it strange that most ladies wrapped up in this society did not mind it much. She herself found several females attempting to entice her as well; at the very least she admitted to herself that she was flattered, if not moderately curious. She'd always found certain females attractive, though she was certain that she cared much more for the company of males. The room was just like most rooms you found on Rittera; love toys, harness, anything that was clearly meant for sexual stimulation or play. As Wolf and Krystal walked through the room the vixen pushed a leather harness that hung from the ceiling only to watch it spin in place for a moment…

"I swear I will never understand these Ritterans and their kinky ass play things…" Wolf chuckled, "…when I was dating girls didn't seem to need any more stimulation than normal. This is all just, strange."

Krystal sighed, "Wolf…" She called causing him to look to her, "…if I never hear about your sex life again that would be fantastic. Still…" She chuckled slapping the same harness, "…is all of this really necessary? I mean what sort of purpose could this possibly serve?"

Wolf laughed, "So I take it with all the time you've been in the Accord, you haven't experienced any of this stuff yet," He said, "I mean it's not like you and McCloud ever….." The wolf paused as he noticed the vixen casting her gaze to the floor, "…oh…sorry. I didn't mean to…"

Krystal held up a hand, "No…not your fault. See, when a Cerinian mates for the first time, we form a type of bond…unless by some form of extensive force, I will never mate with another male in my life."

"So that's why you keep attacking Caruso in the training room." Wolf nodded, "actually makes a lot of sense. So if you don't mind my asking…" He asked as he searched over the room to familiarize himself with his surroundings, "…why'd you leave in the first place? Was Fox…you know a little short in the sack or something like that?"

Krystal sighed, "Actually, no…If you really have to know he knew things about my body that I did not even know," She shot him a half cocked grin that slowly settled into a solemn look, "an…and I left…because…I was afraid."

Wolf looked into the bathroom, before moving back into the den of the small room where he looked out the windows, "You convinced yourself that he'd make an excuse to get rid of you again…so you didn't give him the chance." Realizing that this conversation was going places he didn't intend it too Wolf sighed, "Anyhow, why of all places do you think this Ghost guy would come here? You know…besides the obvious reasons."

Krystal scratched her chin, "What about the Black Market near Tavinson south of here? If that gear is that great he'd probably make a fortune on the market."

Wolf shook his head, "No…if he wanted money he'd have gone after something with a much more profitable market. Most black market traders are afraid to look for profiteers in the field of stolen weapon tech…it's too easy to trace. Now it's your turn though, why did you get that bewildered look on your face when you saw that mark on his coat?"

Krystal sighed as she moved to the window, looking out over the city skyrise that was slowly growing a dense orange thanks to the setting suns of the Dan'jas System, "Vengeance is only mentioned in Cerinian culture when something horrible has been done and needs to be retaliated upon. What scares me is the fact that nobody outside of Cerinian culture would know that symbol, it is something that Cerinians seldom speak of…so it is very safe to assume that this thief is a Cerinian. I never was the last of my people, but I knew after one look into Fox's mind when we first me that he'd not hesitate in taking me home. After applying so many resources in making my escape from Cerinia I couldn't allow him to take me back…so I simply told him that my home world had been destroyed. I knew what kind of person he was, I knew that he would do what he could to help me. When I fist saw him in that video I was frightened because I have seen what my people are capable when they are motivated by Vengeance."

Wolf nodded, "Well if that's the case, I'll send the others their assignments and you can handle the north side of the city. Understand?"

Krystal nodded, "Yes, I understand Wolf, but, even with Panther warn him not to approach this person, my people can be…very defensive when threatened. It can be unpleasant to see the ramifications."

Wolf thought for a moment, "Better that you didn't approach him, Verne didn't really inform me of just how powerful that gear is. Could be lethal, could be a practical P-O-S. Never know with Vector…better to just play it safe."

Krystal nodded, "Alright…I will keep that in mind. Hopefully while I am at this I can keep to the rooftops around here and find a place to relax my mind…all this stress on my head is killing me."

Wolf sighed, "I really am sorry we had to come here of all places, I know what this place does to you and your telepathy. I'd have asked you to stay behind but, I know what kind of reaction you would have to something like that."

Krystal chuckled on her way out the door, "You're learning."

The sapphire vixen shot from rooftop to rooftop with an almost natural guile and stealth; a hunter from her own home, she had been trained to move through the thick canopy watching her prey from above, waiting for the opportunity any predator takes to strike. The rooftops reminded her of home, in the sense that she was very used to being up so high. As she looked down over the streets that she was passing over, she couldn't help but to wonder why this place was the way it was. The entire planet was one part Black Market, one part Prostitution Ring, and one final part Save Trade. There was nothing but corruption here, what Lylat officials swore to fight against and yet, there was an entire planet who's society and economy was based off that which most Enformcers sought to destroy. Her mind would, every so often, slip, allowing a short burst of feelings from all around her to flood into her mind and body all at once. She recalled the first and only time she ever let her defenses down on Rittera; the sudden rush of all the lust and pleasure people in the city were feeling rushing into her body seemed to bring her almost to a sexual release right in front of the entire Star Fox crew, a moment that she was still certain she would never forget. Even now with only a flash of weakness in her defenses, her knees buckled causing her to collapse against a small water tower meant to feed water into the tall building that she stood atop of. All these emotions and feelings reminded her of the people on her planet that would travel through the villages, hoping to feed off of other's feelings and emotions. These people were referred to as Feeders, they were incapable of feeling emotions of their own and were completely obsessed with sharing the feelings of other, and would go through most anything to get what they needed, even so far as torturing someone simply to feel pain.

Thinking about the Feeders from her planet caused her to cringe, as she shook her head and looked about the rooftops. Moving further north, she finally found herself standing atop a tall building, two or three stories higher than your average building for these parts making it roughly five stories. It was a good place to get a perspective on the grounds below her; she hated relying only on her sense of sight, it did not give her as much detail or stealth as she would have liked. With her Telepathy she could have zeroed in on the prick from miles away, picked him out of a crowd of thousands, millions even, leaping from one mind to another looking at the place from a thousand different view points in seconds. Here she was forced to look from one person to another until she hoped she'd find him. It was as she spent her hours there scoping out the north end of town that she sighed, the cold air though freezing for some animals, was quite pleasant for her, she held up the white bracer device on her wrist to her muzzle…

"Wolf, this is getting very old…" She said, "…don't the people here ever take a rest? You have no idea what it's like to feel that much sex all at once."

A chuckling voice came back over the line, "Is it really so bad gorgeous?"

Krystal growled, "I can still punish you from here Panther. The horrible images I'd get from these sick people is more than worth it. I can sniff out that cesspool you call a mind a hundred miles away."

Wolf sighed, "Panther, get off this line. If you come back through without saying the words "I've found him" I'll personally kick your ass and you'll be left with maintenance duty for the next six months, and you know how I like to piss off janitorial. Not get off the line!" He sighed again, "sorry Krys, that guy's becoming more trouble than he's worth."

Krystal chuckled, "Well, at first he was sweet but, after some time it simply became irritating, then annoying, now I can hardly go a day without fantasizing about killing him."

Wolf laughed, "I can understand that…" He said, "…for right now though I know it's irritating but, I need you to get a lock on this guy as soon as possible. So please just keep watching for him, he's here for a reason and I need to know what that reason is."

Krystal nodded, "I'll keep my eye out, but, I'm not promising that any of us are going to find this person, especially if he really is a Cerinian; but, something does not seem right about it all…"

"And what's that?" Wolf asked with curiosity.

"It is the fact that this person, he knew not to look at any of the cameras. He managed to keep his eyes away from every camera in the building," She replied, "almost as if he'd been there before, and knew the whole building's layout."

Wolf hummed in agreement, "You know, I've been thinking the same thing. What Cerinian would know such a thing? You told me yourself that your people are fairly low in terms of technological advancements."

Krystal thought for a moment, "I know of a few that were banished but that was some time ago, and once a Cerinian does something that the council claims could injure the Cerinian way of life, a Reaver is sent to kill the Rogue. What confuses me is the fact that a Reaver will not give up on a target no matter how problematic he or she proves, yet this Ghost person has been a rumor for years…a Reaver would have dealt with him by now."

"Maybe he killed his Reaver." Wolf responded.

Even though it was over a communicator, Krystal shook her head, "No, you have no idea how powerful a Reaver can be."

Wolf chuckled, "Hence the theft of a particular weapons manufacturing company."

"I still don't think I have to tell you that a lot of this doesn't fit…" Krystal replied suddenly double taking as she noticed a familiar figure across the way staring at her from beneath a white hood, "Wolf…" She paused, "…I found him…"

"You did!" Wolf responded enthusiasm.

Krystal nodded, "He's staring right at me…Wolf I didn't even see him," She said, "I was looking right at him and never noticed him…what in the world is this person?"

As she watched this strange animal, this Ghost, it cocked it's head to one side almost inviting her to join it, "Listen Krystal stay away from him, just stick to where you are and we'll come back you up."

Krystal nodded, "Yeah…no problem…"

Though she hated to think that she was lying the vixen quickly made a running leap, allowing her svelte form to seemingly glide across the chasm that formed the street between the two buildings. Upon her landing the vixen rolled forward breaking her fall, coming out of her roll with her spear fully extended and ready. However, as she scoped out the rest of the roof, there was nothing there, just the darkness cast by the sun that shone on the side of the larger building next to the one she stood on. It was as she stood there however that a cold chill ran up her spine…

"It isn't a pleasant feeling is it?"

The raspy, low voice sent a denser chill up her spine, the voice almost sounded familiar, "What are you talking about?"

Suddenly something shot from the darkness ripping Krystal's arm away from her weapon which rattled to the rooftop before pinning her right hand to the wall of the small shack that housed the stairwell, issuing a cry of pain from the vixen, "Feeling that cold chill," The figure answered stepping out into the open, "do you realize that every twenty seconds there are over six thousand murders of various orient in the in this city alone? Can you really say that your life is any better than any of their's?"

Krystal winced in pain as she pulled at the strange dagger holding her hand to the wall, "Who…or what are you?"

The figure smiled, "I am the Ghost that hides in the night."

Krystal gave him an odd look, "Right. And what do you want? Why did you call me down here? Just to lecture me?"

The white cloaked figure sighed shaking his head, "Not to lecture, to warn," he said turning about, as he turned his back to her the vixen struggled with the knife only to find that it felt as though it had been welded to the building, "you see little vixen, there is a storm coming. You see it yourself; Crime has only escalated with Star Fox gone, O'Donnell's little crew of miscreants are nothing that the negative element fear because they understand him. The criminal element that has infested the Council has only grown more brazen itself…"

Krystal stopped struggling with the knife, "So you're trying to tell me that you're a good guy doing bad things for good reasons?"

The figure laughed, "Why would I say something so contradictory?" He asked, "the only solution for the corruption in this…civilized community is to wipe it out entirely and hope that those who decide to start over are wise enough to correct what has always been wrong with it," The person looked at her through the darkness under his hood, "I have had my fill of playing cops and robbers, I have played that game my entire life…McCloud played that game himself and look what became of him…a memory, and not even a welcome one. Here is my warning…" He said stepping up to her and ripping the knife free of her hand and the wall behind it, "…stay out of my way, or you will find yourself alone…and this time it will be only yourself that you can blame."

Krystal lunged at the animal swiping her claws at his face, tearing away a small portion of the edges of his hood, failing to show any of his face. However, her face itself was curled into a hideous, threatening snarl that caused her attacker to chuckled, "Such a beautiful face should never bear such an expression."

The sapphire vixen froze in place as she found herself reaching for her spear only to find the animal missing; it wasn't something that she was willing to believe, nobody moved that quickly, not so much that he could be missing by the time that she could reach for an object less than five feet away. She found herself sitting there filtering through her thoughts about the situation, something was definitely different about this animal; what sort of criminal would after all set up a location to meet someone that was clearly out to bring him in to the government alive? It was however as she sat there that something felt as though it drew her attention to a lone figure standing on the rooftop she'd come from. He'd moved so quickly, however he'd managed to get from the rooftop that she was on, to more than another two stories up in that amount of time brought cause for her to wonder about the system that he'd stolen. In the moment that it took for the white clad figure to vanish, the vixen noticed a familiar gray furred wolf rushing across the roof to her side, where he looked at her injured hand, only to find a bit of blood on an otherwise uninjured hand…

"Good thing you Cerinians are fast healers, you gonna be alright?" The wolf asked.

Krystal shook her head, "Yeah…just caught me off guard is all. He is very good…" She sighed, "…but, I could not tell if he was Cerinian or not. Too much interference on Rittera."

Wolf helped the vixen to her feet, "Did he say something to you?"

"He gave me a warning," She said, "he's going to start a war, at least that is what I took from it; he was talking about the recent crime escalation. It almost sounded like he was working on some sort of conspiracy."

Wolf looked about with a confused expression, "Well that's not important…" He replied, "I found the reason that he came here," He said, "rat named Garex in the black market district in the south sold him six hundred pounds of a chemical compound most commonly referred to as Blast Gel. It's a powerful synthetic explosive used for large scale demolitions, and it's loaded into every self-destruct system on any ship in the Cornerian Navy. Six hundred pounds of the stuff is more than enough to take out an entire space station. That much would turn Sargasso Station into chunks no bigger than my thumbnail. What he bought here isn't the strangest part though. Garex informed me that his buyer was looking for something he called Omega Six. I already had it ran through the computers and it hasn't come up with any matches in the Lylat database, so either Ghost was lying, or whatever Omega Six is, it's under wraps by the government to keep it from getting out."

Krystal searched her mind for a moment, "Wait, if that's true, how could this guy know what Omega Six was in the first place?"

"I have no idea," Wolf replied, "this whole thing is just getting really fucking weird. Man pops up out of the blue almost right after the Star Fox team goes belly up…kay that much I get. He's wearing a Cerinian symbol. He attacked someone like you out of the blue…something that I might add, I have never seen done before. Managed to steal top secret government funded weaponry from one of the most secure companies in the Trinity Accord…and now he's telling you all these little facts that he for some reason knows about the government's current situation," He shook his head, "I don't know who this Ghost guy is, but, I seriously doubt he's another Cerinian. More like he wants everyone to think he is."

Krystal looked to Wolf, "Wolf, I do not believe you or your brother had told me everything that I should know. What are you hiding?"

Wolf sighed heavily, "I'll discuss it back on the Great Wolf."

Wolf stood at the window of the room looking out toward the planet that lay below them; it was a difficult thing for him to put into words, but, the danger that his team faced was something that he was forced by his own conscience to let them in on. Panther had, since their time on Rittera, calmed himself…the sort of things that the young female member of the group could do to the mind was something he was not in a great hurry to experience again. What bothered them all however, was the fact that Wolf was spending far too much time looking for a way to tell them the truth. Something was clearly bothering him about what was going on, and both Krystal and Panther knew the type of situation that it took to bother Wolf O'Donnell. They both knew however, that the best thing to do was to give the old wolf some time. As they rested there, Krystal however rubbed her head, her time on Rittera had taken quite a toll that would lead to her spending most of the remaining day in bed recovering from the horrible strain…

Wolf sighed, "Alright you two," He said looking out the window, "Verne left out a few things. The thief stole a two part Bio-tech suit they code named 'SPECTER' the two parts that were stolen are a suit of body armor that was naturally built to work in unison with a Nano-mod that was made to regulate the suit's functions. Apparently the suit was made to enhance the functions of the body to a level beyond supernatural, but, only when joined with the Nano-mod. The armor is easy enough to hide, just a chest piece," He said turning to face the two of them, "right now I'm not too certain what it is this guy is after but if anything that Krystal was told is a clue he has some sort of grudge against the population of the Trinity Accord as a whole. A resident mechanic managed to get a lead on this guy. Supposedly there is almost nothing to know about our Ghost, he's fast, strong, smart, and really, really good…as apparently somehow he managed to put a bullet in the back of a guards' head, without the guard releasing his weapon. Beltino has a trace at the moment on any ship matching the description of the one Ghost is piloting, apparently it recently made a hyperspace jump toward one of Titania's moons. Either of you wanna guess which?"

Krystal sighed lowering her head, "Virgo 4."

Wolf sighed, "It is really unfair when you do that Krystal," He said, "anyhow. As you both may, or may not know…Virgo 4 is a weapons research planet. Since it's deserted there are all sorts of testing facilities on it. We're under the assumption that Ghost is after some sort of high profile weapon being created by either Vector or Nantech Industries. That is why we're headed for Virgo 4 right now. The bigger problem being, that Ghost's ship is faster, smaller, and more well equipped to handle this sort of situation than ours, and like everything else he's using it's stolen."

Krystal still wore a strangely contemplative look on her face as she sat there, "You know something?" Panther asked.

The sapphire vixen shook her head, "No, it's…a feeling…" She said looking to Wolf, "…this all feels familiar. Like I've seen this kind of work before, and the symbol he was wearing. Where did he even learn Cerinian calligraphy? It's not exactly a common practice in Lylat."

Wolf nodded, "That's the part of it that I was hoping you could point out Krystal. How many people have you ever explained these things to?"

Krystal thought for a moment, "Well let me think…" She said, "…there was Fox, Katt, Falco…though he clearly could have cared less, General Pepper, Peppy…anyone that I considered really close to me."

Panther chuckled, "When do you plan on telling me these things?"

Krystal glared at the cat, "When you grow up?" She replied turning her attention to Wolf, "the person that attacked me was clearly a male, so you can count Katt out of this. Nobody's seen Fox in ages, and let's face facts…Fox was never capable of something like this. Falco is always training his flight academy students, Pepper is dead, Peppy is half blind…"

Wolf sighed, "Yeah, well I'd say that we're back at square one accept for a little snag that seems to be developing…" He said rubbing his neck in an unusually Fox-like manner, "…see. Apparently a few hours ago a large group of heavily armed people crashed a party as Senator Mackoy's mansion on Papetoon. Thirty eight people were killed; including the senator, his wife, two daughters, his son, and his brother and sisters. What really got the goat of every investigator so far in the report that I found in my transmission files, was that every person that took place in the massacre, was dead…turned their own weapons on themselves as soon as the last body hit the floor."

Panther shrugged his shoulders, "What does a gaggle of pathetic activists have to do with the Ghost?" He asked, "everyone is familiar with Mackoy's political views he wasn't exactly popular."

Krystal shrugged a single shoulder to the response, "As much as I hate to say this, he has a point…" She said, "…what does this have to do with Ghost?"

Wolf tossed a small stack of photos onto the table, "These guys look familiar to you?"

Panther shook his head, "Panther has never seen them before."

Krystal however took a moment; the photos were of a horrible crime scene where bodies lay strew about a large residency, with familiar looking cloaked figures laying here and there most of them still clutching their weapons, "They…they are all dressed like the Ghost…" She said looking to another photo but holding it for a moment, "…they are all marked with the same symbol as well. Who are they?"

Wolf shook his head, "L.C.I isn't leaking any names, but, it's clear now that this guy has resources that we don't understand. For now we don't need to understand though, just keep yourself armed whenever you're not on this ship, and be ready for anything when we get to Virgo 4."

The flight would take some time, Krystal quickly headed off to her room, hoping that she could get some sort of sleep before being woken again. She didn't care where they were headed now as long as it wasn't a place having so much floating emotion and sensations as Rittera. She was certain that Panther would irritate her again sometime before then but, at the moment her only real concern was the sleep that she dearly needed…

**August 1st **

**0800hrs**

**Arspace Dynamics, Katina Branch**

Being an engineer for Arspace Dynamics was always one of the more premiere jobs a person of the Trinity Accord could ever wish for; great pay, wonderful benefits, and as safe a job as a person could ever hope for. The massive facility that covered most of the military compound outside of Katina City, was also well known among the galaxy as the top producer of all ships and flight equipment in the Accord. Most military orders in fact were produced by the Katina compound, and it was at the very compound that most of the Accord's greatest mechanics learned the more impressive tricks of their very needed trade. Situated in a large metal building at the far end of the flight compound located outside of the main building of the Arspace facility; a blaring music could be heard from what seemed like miles away. Inside a rather large lower body protruded from beneath a modified wolfen, who's main wings lay at an angle toward the nose of the ship, a bright red furred tail swayed with the music until the music came to and abrupt stop…

"You're not gonna believe this."

The source of the voice came from a young white mink standing near the large entrance to the small hanger; her long golden hair was tied behind her in a fairly loose tail, and she dressed in nothing more than a pair of long shorts along with a short sleeved, light gray shirt. The Mink's light blue eyes danced across a small page of paper she held in her hand…

"Looks like the lead lady want's to hire us before you can get this turkey off the ground." She said.

There was a heavy sigh from beneath the small ship, "Did you really have to cut my music for that?" The busy animal said, "one of my favorite songs too."

The Mink sighed shaking her head this time, "Creed would you stop acting like a kit and listen?" She said, "Miss Phoenix wants her best mechanic to report to the flight test facility on Titania. She's willing to call off your debts."

Creed slid a wrench out from under the small fighter, "Understandable, that's a pretty damn important place around here. So, what about you?"

The Mink chuckled, "Oh you think you're going to a place like Titania without me? I don't think so."

A massive form of a red furred fox, who's white furred chest lay spattered with oil slid out from under the ship, his unusually thick metal arms pulled him freely away from the ship while he continued to lay on the small buggy he'd been using. As he went over the orders that the Mink had dropped on his chest, Creed thought for a moment, before developing a small grin as he looked to the young mink who'd turned to look over some paperwork, only to feel a tug on her tail cause her to fall into a seated position on his lap, where she chuckled lightly…

"Someplace you intend for this to go?" She asked looking over her shoulder in order to see the glint in his light blue eyes.

"Maybe…" Creed chuckled pulling her down so that her back lay against his chest, "…would that bother you Mika?"

Mika laughed placing her hands on the large metal ones wrapped around her waist, "Has it ever?" She asked, "I'd just imagine that you'd want to get the hell out of this hanger, we've been stuck in here for three days."

Creed sighed, "Well, it looks like we won't have to bother with that anymore," He replied, "just finished with this old pile of crap. I think we need to get this old thing replaced before we end up stranded somewhere we don't wanna be, you know like Rittera or something."

Mika chuckled, "What have I told you about mentioning that place in my presence?"

Creed sighed turning his grip into a light hug, "Sorry…I know you don't like remembering that…"

As the two stood up Creed began to use a wet rag to remove the oil from his chest fur, "So we should be able to leave anytime now right?" Mika asked.

Creed nodded, "Yep…not sure how long she'll hold out though. I've still got one question though, why would Fara call me "her" mechanic? I thought I was only your mechanic…"

Mika chuckled playfully, "I agreed to this rather than giving her all the money we had left over from that last job we still need to eat you know? This just seemed a little easier than the alternative."

Creed's ears suddenly perked up causing him to look to the hanger door, "You hear that?" He asked referring to a short series of loud pops, "Sounded kinda like gunshots."

The Mink peered out the door only to leap back as something shot off of the side of the building spraying her face with sparks, "Creed, this place is being attacked!"

As Creed snapped to attention a figure dressed in a white, sleeveless, hooded trench coat rushed into the room hanger whipping a large assault rifle toward the two only to have the massive fox lunge toward him, using one arm to toss the white Mink clear of the fire zone. Two short shots sounded off one grazing off his metal right arm, while the other only managed to graze his ear. Creed's crushing grip around the barrel of the weapon caused the third shot to backfire forcing his attacker to reel back, before a spinning motion from the large vulpine drive the butt end of the rifle into the stranger's head. The monstrous impact of the blow, caused the rifle to burst on impact, sending the weapons integral components spraying through the air with a crimson mist that burst from the hooded creature's head, as his limp body was slung into a nearby large tool chest. Creed tossed the remains of the weapon aside before looking to Mika who'd landed in a small pile of fuel cells…

"You alright?" He asked pulling her to her feet.

Mika sighed, "Yeah, wasn't necessary though."

Creed chuckled, "Well you know me. I tend to react like that," He said moving to their ship and dropping a small compartment beneath it where he reached in tossing Mika a few small objects, "but, right now we need to make sure Fara is alright. If we're lucky her security force is actually doing their job for once."

Mika and Creed rushed out of the hanger and into a scene that resembled a war zone; bodies of random people lay everywhere, pilots, engineers, workers of the company, and guards…it seemed like very few of the hooded figures were injured at all. Looking too the large tower, a window several floors up burst sending a hooded animal crashing to the ground. Creed quickly rushed off toward the doors only to pull back as he rounded the corner of the building. A large number of the hooded figures stood outside the main door of the building, and as he turned back to the back of the building, the two noticed that more of them guarded the fire escape…

"Wow, these guys are good," He said curling his fingertips and quickly splaying them out causing long metal claws to extend from his fingertips, "looks like we're gonna do this the hard way," He said jamming his three in metal claws into the wall, "climb on."

The Mink climbed onto the large fox's back who rather quickly began to scale the wall, leaving behind five small holes where his past handhold was left behind. While Creed scaled the wall, Mika used her legs to keep herself held to his waist, while one arm about his neck kept her from falling back, while her free hand kept her own rifle at the ready. She kept an eye out every time they would pass another floor, until they reached the window that the hooded figure had been thrown to his death. As Mika climbed from Creed's back she found a small handgun jammed in her face; however a lightning fast motion from the young Mink send her own attacker screaming to the ground below. As Creed himself climbed into the room he took note of the room, it was an office, in fact it was an office he'd been in no more than two days prior, the company's bookkeepers office. As he looked out into the hallways however something caught his mind that caused him to look to Mika…

"Why are they in the main building?" He asked, "they don't keep money or parts here."

"Maybe this is some sort of hit…" Mika replied, "…look at all the bodies. You think this has something to do with the attack on Mackoy's party the other day?"

Creed shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe…not sure, I didn't see any of the pictures I was a little busy at the moment. Did you see anything in that report?"

Mika nodded, "Yeah these guys are dressed just like the creep that stole that experimental ship…remember?"

Creed nodded as he looked back out into the hall, "Yeah now that you mention it, these guys do look a lot like that Ghost guy." He said, "which floor did you say Fara's office was on?"

Mika thought for a moment as she looked out the window, "Fifteenth. We're on the eighth that was one hell of a climb. If it weren't for those arms of yours that would have been pretty impressive."

Creed chuckled as he looked back to her, "Yeah, well let's go we're clear."

The building was built in a way that was meant to make everything easier to reach whether by stairs or elevator; each floor was perfectly squared off, with rooms surrounding the clear elevator shaft in the center of the building, while the stairs came up from the opposite end of the building. This made the entire building easily accessible, and unfortunately easily locked down by terrorists. Creed's mind swam with ideas, however, the elevator seemed like the only real way to go, as he was certain the attackers had a strong guard on the stairs. Carefully looking down the shaft that rose through the center of the building, Creed could see the elevator headed back up in their direction. As he peeked around the corner that led to the elevator door however, it came to his attention that there were two guards standing there. Only a small nod of his head back in the direction they'd come from was enough to cause Mika to quickly, and very silently rush back around the building till she was in the same hallway opposite of Creed's location. The Mink quickly stepped out of her cover with her weapon held threateningly at the two, they both rose their own weapons only to have Mika watch their faces go blank before falling to the ground. Creed looked to his right arm, causing a rise in the metallic surface to snap shut before he approached the guards, removing a long metal spike from each of their skulls, which he then placed in his pocket. Before he could even realize what was happening, the young Mink across from him shipped a small pistol from her side firing a whisper of a shot that grazed Creed's neck, causing a light thud behind him as the person whom had been riding the elevator fell to the floor with a large hole blown through his head and hood…

Creed sighed, "As often as you rely on your hands I keep forgetting how good a shot you actually are."

Mika chuckled patting his shoulder as she headed to the elevator, "Not too good…" She replied, "…I missed you."

"Oh ha ha…" Creed retorted sarcastically, "…very funny. No offense but, if you can miss me…you're blind." He said boarding the elevator behind her.

The short ride led the two past several floors until it finally opened allowing the two to step out into a hall that was not quite empty, but clearly not dangerous. Several of the hooded terrorists, along with several other animal dressed in black suits all lay dead strung across the hall. As the gore halted at the large double door marked C.E.O, Creed assured himself that this was all the work of Fara's personally hired bodyguards had clearly done their job. Mika took a position away from the doors…

"Miss Phoenix are you in there?" She called.

Creed's ears perked up as he took his own position before driving his shoulder into the door, tucking into a roll as the door flung open. Creed narrowly managed to escape the bullet that whizzed overhead before rush of air could be heard. Unfortunately as they searched the room, they found the C.E.O of the company laying across her desk. Her blouse had been torn open, and across her chest was carved the very same symbol the terrorists all wore on their backs. Creed inspected the body for a moment only to look back to Mika, as they headed into the halls again, they found no living terrorist, they had all taken their own lives. The two could only stand by and wonder while they waited for the Arspace guards to flood the building. They would clearly be questioned, but, in a situation like this they would have questions of their own…


	3. Episode  2

**~Episode 2~**_  
>"Good and great are rarely the same man" – Winston Churchill<em>  
><em><br>**1100hrs**  
><strong>August 2nd <strong>  
><strong>Corneria City<strong>_

Creed woke to the feeling of the pain that came from the shock that he was given. When the two were thought to be involved with the terrorists and Miss Phoenix's murder, Mika was quickly rounded up quite forcefully…of course this led Creed to go on the attack. Shaking off the feel of the shock that had put him out, Creed took note to the fact that his torso was bare of any arms, space the shining sockets that made the connection to his metal arms. Pacing about the small, bare cell, the large fox wondered…how did they intend for him to eat or drink without his arms? His arms however had become the very least of any concern on his mind. Mika was a great fighter, in fact she was the strongest, most capable female that he'd ever really known…but, that didn't mean she wasn't a tad bit insecure when it came to being isolated. As Creed moved about the room, he stopped in place looking through the bright blue screen of light that kept him inside his cell. The vixen that stood there was fairly attractive by most standards, her petite body was slender, but, she managed to carry herself very well, her eyes were those of a venomous predator that had spotted a bit of prey…  
>"Where's Mika?" Creed demanded.<p>

The vixen sized him up a bit, "I think I'll ask the questions around her for now…" She replied pulling a folded chair over before taking a seat, "…why is your organization doing this? You people have been at the center of more than twenty six murders. All of which have been corporate figureheads, or chief political figures."

Creed pressed his face against the screen of light causing some of his fur to singe, "I don't know, or care what the fuck you're talking about but…I swear to god if you hurt one hair on her head…"

"You'll what Beffstick?" The vixen replied crossing her left leg over her right knee, "Step through a photon shield and choke me to death? You aren't seeing, or hearing a thing from that little Minx until this is all sorted out; and don't bother feeding me any of this bullshit about the attack just happening while you were having your ship repaired. Your girlfriend already admitted that you were part of the organization…"  
>Creed sniffed the air for a moment, "I smell a lying bitch…"<p>

The vixen sighed, "Alright, so maybe I took the wrong approach. I am Inspector Matilda Fallen. Now mister Tasser. You and your little girlfriend have a lot to answer for…"  
>Creed growled as he turned about finding a seat on the Murphy's bed that hung from the wall, "Fara Phoenix was a close, personal friend of mine and Mika's. I'd tear a person's spine out if I even thought for one second they'd laid a hand on her. Same goes for anyone laying a hand on my Minx. I don't know who those fucks are but, they fucked up when they started killing my friends."<p>

Matilda sighed, "I consider myself a very good judge of character Creed…" She said, "…there's a type of passion in your eyes when you talk about those two girls that I haven't seen in a long time. I wish I could date just one guy with that sort of conviction," She said twirling a pen between her fingers, "So what do you suppose I do about all of this? Did either your or her see anything?"

Creed sighed, "Mika said that they terrorists looked like that Ghost guy that's been all over the news."  
>Matilda nodded, "She's right. The problem is that The Ghost of Lylat was covered up and made to look like nothing but a bad dream in order to make him go away a little more than thirty years ago. Like Lament, they simply choose to ignore the problem and hope that it went away. However, unlike Lament…The Ghost never left, instead his crimes grew out of control. Eventually we managed to push him completely out of the Accord, but, it looks like he decided to come back. Unfortunately we never managed to learn his true identity, the hood make retinal identification impossible, and he never leaves any DNA evidence at any scene."<p>

Creed shrugged his shoulders, a strange act for someone without arms, "So you just gonna hold me here then or are you still waiting for me to confess to something I didn't do so you fucks can hang my ass?"  
>Matilda laughed, "We only conserve public hanging for the worst possible offenses Creed. I was ordered to bring you two in for questioning, and you were questioned. If you would have lied I would have known…trust me…I didn't get this job with my looks. After that blue vixen that joined Star Fox, people like me became a lot less afraid of showing ourselves in public. You see, we don't need you to be involved in all this to put you away. Not considering those arms of yours break about six different laws and treaties, not to mention all the illegal…toys that were found on your ship. If I had to think it over I'd say we could put you and your little…Minx away for sixty years a piece."<p>

Creed glared at the vixen, "Just come out and say it…" He said, "…the fuck do you want?"  
>Matilda sighed, "I certainly hope you don't speak with all ladies like that."<br>"You're no lady." The crimson vulpine retorted.

With a heavy sigh the vixen shook her head, "Well, regardless of what I am or am not. The acting General has two different ideas on how to use you two in order to calm this situation. On one side he happens to be well aware of your military background Creed, as well he is familiar with Miss Eese's background as well, he seems to think that the two of you may be able to bring this to a close by taking down Ghost himself. On the other side of things, he could easily simply promise the people that we have captured the real terrorist headmen…and will simply have the two of you executed in order to stave off any further madness for the time being."

Creed looked at the vixen quite seriously, "What background could Mika possibly have that you could use?"  
>Matilda chuckled, "Hmmm…perhaps I should let you two talk it out amongst yourselves. After all she does have a lifelong contract in accordance with the Cornerian Military."<p>

As the Inspector stood and left the hall, Creed was left to think it over, there was only one branch of the military that forced it's members into such a contract. After completing training for a Viper unit, a recruit is given a contract to sign, this contract states that though the government does not own you, it does state that the military can call on you as active enlistment at any point in your life. If Mika were involved with Viper however, he was certain she'd have said something, after all there was nothing ever hidden between them. It was something that he planned on asking a few questions about when they did bring her to his cell…

**************  
><strong>1200hrs<strong>  
><strong>August 2nd<strong>  
><strong>Great Wolf, En Route to Virgo 4<strong>

Krystal's mind was still having trouble as she tried her hardest to sleep, having missed her opportunity at night; most of the images that were still fresh in her mind from her time on Rittera were quite difficult to get rid of. She'd have been embarrassed to have any of her Star Wolf friends learn that her own older thoughts of herself and Fox. She chuckled to herself every time she recalled her old childish thoughts of settling down with Fox, she even had her own thoughts back then of what their children could have possibly looked like. The sapphire vixen at this moment stepped out of her quarters' personal bathroom, drying her hair while tugging at a small spot where the band of her spandex shorts that went along with the bright red sports bra that she often wore when training. She had not intention of training now, she simply did not intend to go through the steps of dressing as she normally would; just like the previous night, she often slept in the attire because, as she explained to those who asked, she found it oddly comfortable. Her natural habit was to sleep in the nude, however that changed when she found thoughts in Panther's head about installing a camera in her room. The vixen found her way out into the halls, it was clear that at the very least Caruso was asleep, as his own mind was not fully active at the moment. She walked through the halls, taking her time, it was a routine that she often followed when she was a member of Star Fox, it really helped her mind to be set at ease. It was a cure that Peppy had told her some time ago actually, to help with those restless nights, and it did work. Walking about the Great Wolf, her mind tended to travel toward other things that did not bother her so much…wonders of how certain things worked or how much fuel was in the ship, what percentage things were working at…it all helped really. However, none of it helped nearly as much as when she arrived at the docking bay to find Wolf standing by, he clearly knew that she was having trouble sleeping with all the sex and crime on Rittera still fresh in her head…  
>"Hey…" The middle aged wolf smiled, "…can't sleep?"<p>

Krystal nodded, "I sensed that you were awake…so I thought I would come see what you were up to."

Wolf smiled brightly, "Well…actually I had a surprise for you," He said turning and walking toward where the team's Wolfen's were all birthed, "first off, I got some bad news from Corneria. Leon isn't going to be back for a few more days…which is kinda sad cuz we could use his help, I did however manage to get in the order that I placed for you while you were asleep…" He said moving toward the only Wolfen that was covered by a light brown tarp, "…care to guess what this is?"

The vixen could have easily simply read his mind, but, she'd promised not to search the minds of the team, though he did constantly excuse her for doing so to Panther, "Well it's clearly a ship. Speaking of which where is my Wolfen?"

With that Wolf tore away the tarp, causing the vixen to stare into the reflective paint of a Wolfen the vixen had never seen before; this ship was the same color of blue as the vixen that stared into it's surface. It's cockpit glass was stained a light green as well, and it's wings angled forward while it's two higher wings jutted straight out like long blades across the cockpit…  
>"We all had our Wolfens customized I figured it was time we did the same to yours." He said, smiling as Krystal looked over the ship, "it's been fully reconfigured, faster than any of ours, it's running an extended version of the engine the Arwings use, and it's carrying a Disruptor Cannon instead of the standard smart bomb launchers. It's got a good charge but you've only really got two or three good shots with it. They tend to overheat pretty easily…so you have to watch your ass in a dogfight. We don't wanna loose you to a careless mistake."<p>

Krystal chuckled, "Thank you Wolf. I…I haven't really felt accepted since before I left Star Fox."  
>Wolf scoffed as he patted her shoulder, "Hey you're always accepted here. Hell I'd prefer to have you here rather than Panther."<p>

Krystal watched as Wolf made his way out of the room, he had been maintaining the ships just in case the worst should happen while on Virgo 4. The place was only really know for weapons testing, even though most people outside of the military didn't know such things. She was happy to feel so welcomed by Wolf, even though she knew that he'd accepted her a long time ago, it was still a good thing to hear. The vixen, curious about her new ship, quickly climbed into the cockpit and began to check over the delicate instruments. It was designed to look like the cockpit of her old Cloudrunner, in fact if she didn't know any better she'd say they were the controls of her Cloudrunner. It was as she looked over the command console that the young vixen's finger brushed over a rough spot in the thick dash panel that protected the terminal, where she recalled using her claw to carve a large heart, it was marked again with multiple slashes through it. She'd attempted to scratch the little symbol away, she wanted nothing to remind her of Fox, and yet no matter where she went or what she did his memory was still there. Even now with his disappearance splayed across every newspaper she saw, she realized that his place in her heart and mind would never be replaced…his eternal presence with her was something that she simply would be forced to deal with. All she really managed was to simply accept that fact that Fox was gone, and now her life simply had to go on…  
>The night gave no solace to the young vixen, she found her thoughts running wild; her thoughts were, like usual, of things that she did not wish to think about. When not in deep thought about her family or Cerinia itself, her mind kept retreating back to her memories of her friends. Fox, Slippy, Falco, Peppy…of course Fox had left her but, in the end he had come back for her. Even were it not for Fox, she missed her friends from the Star Fox team, she still loved them all…Fox wasn't just the person that broke her heart, he was at first her closest friend and savior. They were all family. Hours would go by, and despite her need for sleep, her mind simply would not give in to her body's longing for rest…<p>

It was early morning when a familiar gray wolf walked into the galley of the Great Wolf with a light yawn while snapping the eyepatch that gave him the ability to see out of his ruined eye. The instant sight of the blue vixen sitting at a far table, collapsed across the table's surface while clutching a small photo in her hand, caused wolf to slowly approach her with a sigh. He removed the photo from the surface of the table, as it barely hung from her fingers; the sight brought a light smile to the old wolf's face. There was a familiar looking chestnut colored fox standing with his arm wrapped around Krystal's shoulders, while she'd clearly taken the opportunity to plant an unexpected kiss on Fox's cheek. As much as she often tried to hide it, it was clear to Wolf that Krystal still harbored deep feelings for Fox…enough to keep her regretting the fact that nobody had seen the poor animal in what seemed like ages. He often wondered what had become of Fox McCloud himself, but, being in this situation all Wolf could do was place the photo in his pocket, before lifting the surprisingly heavy vixen out of her seat. Walking through the halls, it seemed inevitable to run into the only other present member of the team…  
>"Was she in the galley again?" The black furred panther asked.<p>

Wolf sighed, "Yeah, she was thinking about him again," He replied as the vixen in his arms shifted a bit, "look, get a sub-space link open and try to find Leon I want a report on what's taking him so goddamn long."

Panther knew this was no time to play around, "No problem…he's probably on his way back right now."

Wolf lay the vixen in her bed before setting the small photo on her nightstand, he sighed heavily as he headed out of the room. There was still plenty of time left before they would reach their destination, time enough at least to give the vixen a bit of rest. Leaving the room Wolf sighed heavily, this was becoming a standard problem with Krystal, it seemed like she would do this to herself once or twice a week at the least. It was becoming a bit of a problem, but, as long as she didn't let these feelings get in her way during a mission he had no real worry about her getting herself hurt. Something more than just her memories of Fox was bothering her though…what it was she would most likely keep to herself but, it would most definitely have to be subject to some discussion at a later date. Right now it seemed far more important for him to hurry to the Bridge of the ship, where he found a familiar looking lizard's oversized head hovering above a large round table top in the center of the room…  
>"Leon what in the hell is taking you so long?" The wolf almost demanded.<p>

The reptile sighed, "I am currently stealing a satellite uplink from on of the Arspace satellites. I am not sure you wish to hear this, but, there is an huge panic on Corneria, all outside communications have been cut off."  
>"Corneria?" Wolf asked, "Why would they cut off all communications?"<p>

Leon sighed, "Long story. Originally my mission was not complicated but, eventually I ended up on Katina to ask a few questions of Miss Phoenix. That turned out to be a terrible idea, because Arspace was attacked by a large group of nuts dressed in white…" He said, "…they killed Miss Phoenix. Two bystanders tried to save her, they're being held for questioning right now. Names are Creed Lamont Tasser, and Mikasha Eese…"

"Wait a minute…" Wolf said, "…Tasser? Doesn't Krystal have a friend by that name?" He asked turning to Panther.

The feline took a moment, "Creed…" He paused before nodding, "…really big fox…broke my right hand."  
>Wolf chuckled, "Oh yeah…you sort of deserved that you could only tell the white one was with him," He said turning to Leon's image, "what's the problem?"<p>

"From what I gather they're trying to act like this terrorism thing isn't happening…" The chameleon replied, "…they're planning on using Creed and his little white girlfriend to cover their story. Apparently the current General is wanting to keep this all under wraps to keep mass hysteria from breaking out all over the Lylat system. I haven't heard much but, once you three are done with what you're doing, head for the Katina branch of Arspace Dynamics and see if you can't piece something together. This terrorist is after something, but whatever it is it doesn't make any sense."

Wolf shook his head, "No it makes perfect sense. Ghost is using all his flunkies to distract all the attention away from himself while he's out doing whatever it is he's doing."  
>"Any idea what he's after?" Leon asked.<p>

"From what I understand," Wolf replied, "the third part of an advanced system called 'SPECTER'," He said, "dig up whatever information you can on it. Have it to me as soon as possible. When you get back if not sooner."  
>Leon grinned, "Would you like me to get this information at ANY cost?"<p>

Wolf chuckled, "Use your best judgment."  
>"Will do Wolf…" The reptile chuckled, "…Powalski out."<p>

As the image faded Wolf looked to Panther, "Check our systems, and get out whatever gear you think we may need down on Virgo 4, make sure the our personal shields are fully charged too."

Panther quickly turned and headed toward the door before Wolf's voice stopped him in his tracks, "And Panther…" He called, "…if I find out that you stopped to bother her…I'll personally throw your ass into an airlock. Understand? She needs her rest, so leave her be."

Panther sighed, "You are becoming terribly defensive."  
>Wolf growled, "Listen Caruso," He huffed, "this is the last time I'm going to warn you. The next time you rile her up…I'm not going to stop her from turning your ass into a walking vegetable. I hope you understand this…I'm getting really fucking tired of having to call you off every day of the goddamn week."<p>

The cat sighed before making his way out of the room, though he didn't like being threatened he knew there was little he could do about it. Most of the impulses that he had regarding Krystal were things that he knew would get him killed, or worse. The vixen had promised him that she could change his sexuality with enough time, and she could render him unconscious with little to no effort which would give her more than enough time to rewrite his sexuality. Being one of the few outcomes that he fully feared, thinking about it often caused the panther to back off indefinitely. As he left the bridge, Wolf began going over some files that he'd been neglecting; a bad practice when some of them were the order forms for the team's supplies of munitions. Most of the time Wolf never allowed such a thing to go without being dealt with but, with the sudden rush of work that he was going through it seemed unavoidable. Among the notices and order forms however, the lupine noticed something…a personal note sent to his personal inbox. It was very rare that he received personal mail but, in the event that he did it was usually important. Opening the digital note, Wolf's eyes began to run back and forth across the screen in front of him until he finally finished reading…  
>"What the hell is this?" He asked himself out loud, "Paradigm Sigma Epsilon Lambda Paradigm…twilight? Who the fuck?"<p>

Not finding a way to understand the segment of odd characters and words, Wolf ran the thing through a decryption program only to receive a negative response to the section of gibberish. It was clearly sent to him by someone that did not want themselves to be known, as it contained no return name or sub-space link. Whatever it was, both the ship's computer and himself could not make it out. The wolf could not get this strange note off of his mind, until he realized that trying to figure it out for himself was a moot point. Fortunately when things like this tended to piss him off, he would send such documents to the one person he knew that was most likely more intelligent than Slippy or Beltino Toad. A solitary animal that was difficult to find for those that did not know him well enough to know his pattern of travel…  
>"There that smartass little bastard Xander can figure it out…" He said looking around, "…probably heard me…and in case you are watching. Stop, these are security cameras not spy glasses."<p>

An airy hiss caused Wolf's ears to stiffen as he took note of the time panel on his terminal, "Yelling at Xander again?" The soft tone of Krystal's voice swam across the room.

Wolf nodded, "You feeling any better?"  
>"Yes," The vixen replied finding herself a seat, "thank you."<br>"Don't worry about it kid." Wolf replied, "you'd have done the same thing for me." He said looking out to the small red planet below them, "well let's land this turkey. I think you should get ready. You feeling up for this?"

Krystal smiled, "Oh I feel great now," She said.  
>"Yeah, with I could go on that kind of sleep."<br>Krystal chuckled, "Well that's another perk of being a Cerinian. We never really require that much sleep to go through the day."

Wolf chuckled, "Yeah, well just go get geared up," He replied, "Virgo 4 station, this is Wolf O'Donnell with the Great Wolf. Requesting permission to land…" After the long silent pause Krystal turned away from the door, her mind instinctively roaming the planet below, "…Virgo 4 we are requesting clearance to land…we need you to open your bay doors right now. Virgo 4 come…"

Wolf was cut of by the sapphire hand on his shoulder along with the bewildered look on the vixen's face, "Don't bother…" She said shaking her head, "…there's nobody down there."

Wolf gave the vixen a confused look before shifting his gaze to the planet, who's surface slowly climbed toward them, "You mean in the building?"  
>The vixen turned looked to him with the same bewildered look, gently shaking her head as she looked back to the planet, "No…I mean period. There's just nobody down there."<p>

Wolf quickly turned on the PA, "Panther, get the land gear ready we're going to have to enter this place manually. Make sure the environmental respirators are in working order. We're gonna have to find a way into the building ourselves."

Krystal kept her mind in search of any signs of life on the surface as the Great Wolf slowly hovered over the land, "Anything?" Wolf asked.  
>The vixen sighed, "There is something coming from that building," She replied pointing toward a small dome-shaped building far to the west, "at this distance I cannot be certain what it is, but, it is alive."<p>

"Is it him?" Wolf asked as he turned the ship toward the facility.  
>Krystal shook her head, "No…I could not read him at all back on Rittera. Whatever this is, it's dying."<br>"Then let's get in there nice and fast," Wolf replied, "Panther meet us in the Docking Bay I'm bringing us down right beside that facility. Make sure we're pretty well armed, if Krystal can't sense this guy he very well might still be in there."

There was no time wasted between Wolf and Krystal in getting to the Docking Bay, where Panther waited. The feline handed a familiar little hexagon shaped device to Wolf and Krystal, before passing the wolf a large assault rifle. Wolf pulled a small device from his belt placing it behind his ear before pulling a long metal shaft from it that led to the corner of his mouth, causing Krystal and Panther to do the same…  
>"Mic check…" Wolf said in a calm voice.<br>"Check one…" Krystal replied.  
>"Check two…" Panther fell in.<p>

"Good…" Wolf said lifting a muzzle cover to his face before latching it around his head and pressing a small button causing his first breath to become quite audible, "…respirators on."

The two others followed his lead, "I still hate these things…" Krystal commented scratching at the strap that was tightened around the back of her head, "…they itch like crazy."  
>Panther twitched his neck a bit, "Panther agrees…when will they invent something a bit more convenient?"<p>

Wolf sighed, "You remember what these things used to look like? I think this is a lot more convenient…" He said, "…you know the routine though. Get it in gear. Once we're inside, We'll formulate our plan."

**************

Stepping out onto the open bright red sand of the deserted moon almost instantly brought tears to their eyes; Virgo 4 was known for it's heavy sand storms, and high temperatures. Krystal and Wolf rushed to the door, leaving Panther to guard their backs. The doors to the facility were, of course, locked down. It was standard procedure when under attack. Wolf quickly began to work over the small numbered pad. It was as he worked over the pad that Krystal looked to Panther, far behind them, who did his job guarding their backs. Though she did not like him in the least, she did admit that when push came to shove Panther did do his job the way it was meant to be done. Her attention then went to the winds that blew through her fur, drying and irritating her skin…  
>"I hate this place already." The vixen voiced in disgust.<br>Wolf huffed angrily, "This damned thing…"He said pulling a combat knife from a sheath across his lower back using it to pry the panel away from the wall, "gimme three more minutes," He said fingering through the different wires, "anything else on that life form?"

Krystal nodded, "Yes…scientist…" She said, "…female, she's…injured. We should hurry."

Wolf touched a pair of wires together resulting in a spark before the doors slowly slid open allowing them access to the facility. Very quickly Panther was on them as the two made their way inside. Krystal stepped ahead of the two into the incredibly dark halls of the building before drawing a familiar golden spear, who's jeweled head began to emit a bright light. As she stood by the door behind her slid shut allowing them to remove the masks that they wore. Allowing a telepath to take point was a basic practice for the team, a practice that had from the first day been the vixen's idea. Aiming her spear forward she led the two behind her through the facility, until she found a large map posted in the center of a three way intersection. The absence of lights making it difficult to see anything, the vixen held her spear up to the map…  
>"Alright," She said, "Panther…take the left. You're looking for the system terminal from the base itself. We need the lights back on."<p>

"What about you two?" Panther asked.

Wolf shook his head, "We have to find that survivor. We may be able to save her."  
>Krystal looked in his direction, "This is important Panther…this isn't a joke. Whatever Ghost wanted here…we need her to tell us what it was."<p>

Krystal and Wolf split the path with Panther, taking the right while sending the lone feline down the left. The halls were as black as pitch, spare the fact that her spear managed to light up a small bit of wherever they were currently standing. Several times the two stopped to inspect what appeared to be no more than bloody spatters that stained the walls. Yet, unlike times where Ghost had been involved before, there were no other bodies aside from the slew of mutilated guards. So far during what attacks she did know about, the terrorists had all killed themselves. It was as the vixen looked over several mangled corpses, and the massive amount of blood spattered across the walls that Wolf looked to her…  
>"Something wrong?" He asked.<br>Krystal nodded, "Look at these wounds," She said pointing to the splayed open chest of a dead raccoon, "this was done by hand. So was this…" She said pointing toward a female rat who's mid section had been ripped entirely open, "…they were all killed by hand. He knew they had no defenses."

Wolf held up a hand, "Wait, wait, wait, wait…" He said looking to another raccoon who's torso lay perpendicular to his legs, "…there is no way in hell this was done by hand."

Krystal shook her head, "No this was all done by hand. The cuts are not clean enough for a blade. He was here alone…" She said stopping as she noticed another animal, this ferret clearly had his chest blown open, from the inside, "…and he…I've seen this kind of wound on Cerinia. A telekinetic shield was torn through his chest. Ghost…" She finally said looking to Wolf, "…he is Cerinian."

Wolf looked to the body before looking back to Krystal, "That's not something I wanted to hear. I'm not exactly ready to deal with a Cerinian terrorist."  
>"It would explain why I couldn't read him," Krystal replied, "he was just blocking me out. That means one other thing that means something horrible for us…"<br>Wolf stood up, "What might that be?"  
>The vixen stood, "Alright you know how telepathy works right?" She asked, "You did read Beltino's study on my abilities didn't you?"<p>

An uncertain look from the wolf caused Krystal to chuckle, "The brainwave that telepathy transmits on; it can be canceled out but, only by the same wave acting on a stronger frequency."

Wolf slapped his hand over his eyes, "He's stronger than you isn't he?"  
>Krystal nodded, "Much. I've never seen anything like it…I have never heard of a Cerinian so powerful…" She said looking to the wall as she stood up, "…look. They shot at him from that doorway…" She said looking to the doorway before holding her light up to the opposite wall. The was riddled with small impacts where an unidentifiable number of rounds had been fired leaving a clear spot in the wall in the image of the standing figure, "…every single bullet went around him. Even I can only manage to block a small amount of Kinetic force like that. This does not even seem possible."<p>

"Well…" Wolf said, "…enough trying to scare the hell outta me. Let's just go find that survivor."

Krystal led the wolf through the corridors, illuminating any mess of carnage and gore that she found littering the hallways; Wolf found himself amazed at the level of violence, even with Viper he'd never seen such bloodshed. Most of the killing was completely pointless, unarmed scientists and maintenance workers…almost nothing here was any threat whatsoever. It was as they traveled through the halls that Wolf began to wonder. What kind of drive this person had, Krystal had an inclination that he seemed to be out to start a war, and from what she'd told him about her meeting with Ghost, it sounded like she was right…but, something else bothered him. People didn't just start wars, not without a reason, she claimed that he sounded as if he had some sort of vendetta against the entire Accord…  
>"Krystal…" He said as they stopped for a moment, "…something's been bugging me. If this guy is clearly one of yours…" He paused, "…how could he have a grudge against Lylat?"<p>

The vixen led them through a door that seemed opened into a large galley, the attack must have happened at some point before or after any meals, as there were only several bodies in the room, "I…I do not know…" She replied, "…that was something that didn't make any sense to me either. He seems to know so much about life out here…he must have been banished from Cerinia a very long time ago…" She sighed shaking her head as she led on, "…whatever happened to him…it must have been horrible to make him like this. It makes me wonder if I have any real right treating Fox the way I did."

Wolf sighed, "Well there are far worse things in this life than trying to protect someone you love…" He said, "…I know I'd have done the same thing if I were in his shoes."  
>"You're not helping." Krystal huffed.<br>"Sometimes what you wanna hear and what you need to hear aren't always the same thing," Wolf replied, "in fact they rarely are."

As they broke into another hall, Krystal froze in place. There was only a single animal in this room but, the fashion in which he'd been killed caused her to look to a small spatter of blood behind her. The wolf that lay in the corner still held a death grip on the handle of a small pistol, even though a wound opened his torso from his naval up to his right shoulder. She slowly studied the body before looking back to the wolf…  
>"This one shot the intruder," She said studying his injury, "it doesn't fit though. He was killed with a blade…a very keen one," She said pointing to a deep gouge in the wall, "look where it bit into the wall behind him."<p>

Wolf thought for a moment, "I've never heard of a blade that can cut into Borillium," He said brushing a hand over the scrape in the wall.  
>"Neither have I…" Krystal replied, "…but, this was a completely different pattern of attack than the other that walked through here."<p>

"You telling me this was someone else?" Wolf asked.  
>The vixen sighed, "Yes…but, whoever did this, only killed this one."<p>

Wolf looked to the vixen, "Why only this poor bastard?"  
>Krystal shook her head, "He was the only one that attacked…" She replied, "…think about it. Ghost, he was using some sort of ability to redirect all the bullets away from him. This person was shot, didn't even bother stopping the bullet. Or couldn't."<p>

Wolf nodded, "Shouldn't we be looking for that survivor?"  
>It was as he said this that the lights came on causing Krystal to look to the far corner of the hall behind her, "She collapsed when she made it to the hall."<p>

Wolf rushed to the red squirrel's side, her right hand had been severed, and she was bleeding from several deep cuts across her body, it was clear that she was not directly targeted, "Wow she got it pretty bad but…" The wolf said pulling something from the pack he carried with him, "…luckily we've got ways of dealing with things like this now." He said placing a round, thin, filmy cover over her severed hand which instantly began to bubble over before finally hardening over the wound, "…that should hold until we can get her to the sick bay back on the Great Wolf. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be."

A short burst of gunfire caused the two to jump to attention, "You two need to get back to the entrance!" Panther's voice shot through their headsets, "It was a set up! They were baiting us in!"

Wolf picked up the injured scientist before the two rushed back the direction they'd come from; it was however, as Krystal rushed through the halls ahead of Wolf that a figure suddenly sped out in front of them. The white cloaked animal however, met with the rushing point of a spear before a released ball of flames fired the body back down the hall. Though Panther was a boarish, pigheaded, morning with no respect for a female. He was part of the team, and something that Fox had told Krystal long ago still echoed in the back of her mind…the team is family. Perhaps that was something that she never fully understood, on Cerinia the concept of family was a very closed minded thing. You were either family by blood, or you were not. Even Krystal's mate would not be welcomed as family by her parents, but, her children would have been. It was strange even now, how much the concept differed form Cerinia and Lylat's meaning of the word. There were many definitions like that between Lylat and Cerinia, but, as for family, it was something that she'd come to understand clearly enough. Panther was irritating, and most of the time she dreamt of killing him in absolutely horrible ways…but, in the end of things he was a member of the team and without him it simply would not have been the same…  
>Rushing off through the halls, the vixen actually began to move ahead of Wolf, leaving him hanging slightly behind as his charge would be nothing more than a sitting duck in a fire zone. Krystal however was sure that she was needed, Panther was very good at what he did most often, but, his marksmanship was not something worth writing a novel about. Her pace quickened as she felt the stress that the feline was feeling as he was pinned down behind the terminal where the map had been in the center of the entrance hall of the facility. Panther never really saw the blue streak that shot across the intersecting hallways, laying the thick metal blade of her spear into the knees of the four cloaked figures that stood in the opening of the hallway., before they all collapsed to the ground. Krystal quickly turned back around, and with a flick of her spear the four downed creatures burst into bright blue flames. Screaming and wailing as they rolled about the floors attempting to extinguish the flames that enveloped their bodies.<p>

Before the vixen could respond, another animal rolled from the hall firing three shots in her direction, each of which met with a wall of kinetic energy. As the animal noticed this, he seemed to toss his weapon to one side, before pulling a small knife from behind his back. With a quick flick of his wrist, the blade seemed to unfurl into a short sword with a straight, single edged blade, and an angled tip. In a fit of speed and precision the cloaked figure shot forward, not wasting his time with the gunfight he'd left behind. He lunged in driving his blade down only to have the vixen swing her spear overhead causing the blade to collide with the center of the golden shaft just overhead. Her attacker quickly released his sword, gripping the staff in both hands before swinging his body over her. As his feet met the floor, the cloaked creature heaved forward causing the motion to swing Krystal free of the spear, and into the wall several feet down the hall. Almost instantly the vixen was forced to duck, causing the point of her own spear to be driven into the wall above her head, before a swipe of the weapon caused her to roll to her left into the angled off part of the hall away from the firefight. Almost as soon as she managed to get to her feet; the animal shot across the small expanse. His first attack was swung overhead, causing the vixen to dodge to her left. In an instant reaction to her movement, the stranger whipped the spear back by it's back end before driving it's blade back at her chest. The lower half of the spear's long blade tore into the vixen's shoulder, causing her to reel back. Before the cloaked animal could mount another offense, Krystal shot back at him. Her body actually left the ground in an diagonal spin that drove her heel down into the shaft of the weapon, hard enough to instantly force her attacker to his knees, a peculiar twist of her foot however allowed her to wrench her spear from his grip flipping it into the wall behind her. Thought she taught him many things, there were things that Fox McCloud had taught the vixen that no other animal possibly could have…  
>The stranger quickly took up a guard and shot in at her, his attack…a jumping spin kick that was easily ducked, before she was forced to leap over his other leg the moment he landed in the rotation of a perfect leg sweep. Unfortunately, in mid leap, the vixen found the terrorist airborne in the midst of the very same spin, that drove an intense kick into her middle, sending her sliding across the metal floor. Reeling from the absurd kick, the vixen slowly stood, only to find the animal approaching her in a dizzying spin that actually caused the features of his gown to blur before an insane force struck her chest sending her into the air and back into the far wall of the hallway. As she stood this time, Krystal grimaced causing her to notice the blood trickling from her mouth. Readying herself, the vixen took a defensive stance as the attacker rushed in on her again. However, as he finally came within striking distance, he seemed to leap up against the wall to the vixen's left, before kicking off of it at an angle, and again to the wall to the right of her, before using his gathered momentum to drive down toward her with another kick. However, this time she had been ready for it. In a lithe movement, the vixen strafed the blow, and quickly snatching the cloaked figure by his leg, spun to her left swinging the animal into the wall. Her attack was met with the loud, wet chime of bone grinding against the surface of a golden shaft protruding from the wall…<p>

Gripping at her indefinitely broken ribs, the vixen leaned into the wall, only to hear that the gunfire had ceased and two familiar figures rushed into the hall after her. Panther stood before her holding his right arm, as he looked to have taken a shot to his left shoulder, while Wolf seemed to have a light limp. The wolf looked to the animal that hung from a familiar spear who's rear tip was protruding from beneath his hood, even had they removed the hood at this point his face would have been unrecognizable…  
>Panther chuckled, "Well that must have hurt."<p>

The vixen grimaced painfully with a deep hiss, "His kicks felt like yours Wolf…maybe even like Fox's. I've never…" She paused in pain, "…seen anyone move like that."

Wolf quickly helped the vixen steady herself, despite having a still unconscious squirrel on his back, "Come on. I think all three of us could use a little medical care at the moment."

As the two limped away, the vixen looked over her shoulder, "Panther…my spear…" She hissed in pain again, "…and collect a phial of that person's blood. I want to know who that was."

Several hours passed, and the three had managed to patch each other up rather well enough…though there was no chance in hell that Krystal would have accepted Panther's offer to check her injuries over. Stripping away her shirt with Wolf doing the inspecting was however, another matter. It took some time for them to all be fully patched but, while Krystal and Panther sat in the galley waiting for Wolf to finish with his own injuries, but, soon enough Wolf entered the room. He didn't say much until he sat down…  
>"Well she's stable…" He said, "…she lost a lot of blood, but, thankfully her BT wasn't that rare…we had a few pints on hand."<p>

Panther sighed, "Panther already hates these terrorists. They fight dirty."  
>"Agreed…" Krystal cut in leaning back a bit with tears in her eyes, "…I'd forgotten how much this hurts."<p>

Wolf thought for a moment, "You said one kick broke four ribs and bruised two? Sounds more like you were fighting McCloud. I ever tell you about the time he nearly collapsed my entire chest cavity with this new kick he came up with?"

Krystal grimaced, "What kick do you think he hit me with?"  
>"That ridiculous Grand Illusion thing he was always working on?"<br>Krystal narrowed her eyes at the wolf, "That "Illusion" broke my ribs…" She lightly shook her head, "…I'm sorry Wolf…I should have snapped at you like that. Did you test that blood?"

The wolf slid a small file across the table to her, inside was the photo of a young ferret; he was light brown with two white stripes running down the length of his body, "Rodrick Teniss, ex special forces. Imprisoned on Styx six years ago; for brutal assault and sixteen cases of first degree pre-meditated murder. He was a real fuck job…check this out though. Took two more samples on my way out just to see if we could track one of these guys," He said sliding two more files across the table, "Tyson Varrk, aka The Kew City Stalker. Twenty years ago, this sick fuck was walking the streets reenacting this whole situation in human history books about this freak that called himself Jack the Ripper. I won't get into details but, they both had a thing for killing prostitutes. The other guy I got a sample from was some nobody named Jonathan Macormak. Wanna guess where they're both from too?"

Krystal nodded, "Well at least we know where he's getting his followers. Cheap, good at killing, easy to control…all makes sense really." She said grunting in pain.  
>Panther suddenly placed a small round tub with a red lid on the table, "You should lift your shirt…" He said removing a strange smelling green substance from the container, before rubbing it into his palms, "…Panther promises to behave."<p>

Krystal looked to Wolf only to receive a confirming nod, as she lifted her shirt only to the bottom of her breasts. The feline began to rub the substance onto her side, once the area was evenly coated in the strange film he moved back to his seat. Krystal after a moment or two Krystal noticed a vast difference in the pain, she could actually breath without intense pain…  
>"What is that?" The vixen asked as Panther capped the jar sliding it over to her.<p>

"Oh that's right no one ever told you that Panther is a botanist," Wolf said, "if there's anything about plants or herbal remedies, he can figure it out."

Panther nodded, "It is a hobby," He smiled, "it comes with Panther's love of beautiful things."  
>Wolf sighed, "Panther…do us all a favor and check in with the General…I think there's an entire council that may want to hear something about all of this."<p>

Panther quickly left the room as his injury did not seem to hinder his movements as much as Krystal's or Wolf's, "What do you think of all of this Krystal?" Wolf finally asked tapping the table, clearly referring to the folders.

Krystal shook her head, "Not good. The kind of people that are banished to Styx are only sent there because of the Council's views on capitol punishment. Were it like the older days that I read about in all of those history books they made me study in order to earn my citizenship…those people would all be dead and we would not need to worry about it."

"Well in all defenses," Wolf said, "Stygian set it up before we started using it. Our direct use of Styx was a good faith present from the heads of the Stygian Alliance. Not a bad alternative, but, I've known that people have been placing way too much faith in the idea that Styx is inescapable. About, seven years ago there was this guy, proved that escape was possible. He made it off of Styx and vanished. Course it wasn't much longer till he was killed. In retrospect, I think he was safer on Styx."

After a prolonged silence Krystal sighed, "Alright out with it."  
>Wolf chuckled, "Alright. Leon did some digging and sent me what he's managed to scoop up on this SPECTER project," He said, "I didn't want Panther in here to hear this, mainly because honestly, he turned his back on the military to join this team. I can't trust that he won't do the same thing for more money…" He said with a sigh, "…apparently that suit of armor, it's not a suit of body armor, in fact it's barely what you'd call a vest. It's an advanced Electromagnetic Containment System. It is meant to keep an overhauled Nano-mod working properly. Here's the kicker, the mod, it's not listed…military, council, or Vector Industry database…which means…"<p>

"Black Project," Krystal replied, "…completely unregistered. Who do you suspect?"  
>Wolf shook his head, "Don't know…apparently the entire project was based on some sort of recent study on the subject of some kind of advanced super soldier. Most military factions have long since learned that a Nano-mod can be tweaked so that the person can preform beyond natural limitations. They're nothing really new, governments all over the Accord have been trying to develop the newest breed of killer robots, super soldiers, or mega weapons…it's been going on forever. The problem is that this little project has no bearing, no background, and at the moment Leon is finding it a little difficult to find any solid facts on it."<p>

"Is there any idea what the Mod itself does?" Krystal asked.  
>Wolf sighed, "Not yet. He's been doing his best but…well there's only so much one chameleon can do. Corporate espionage might be his specialty, but, he's not a miracle worker."<p>

"What do we do now then?" Krystal asked.  
>Wolf shook his head, "Though I hate to say it, nothing. There's nothing we can do until we gather the facts to what this is all about and how we can possibly stop it. Other than that we need to try and figure out where Ghost is headed. I hate admitting when I'm backed into a corner but, this guy is better than Fox or James could have ever hoped to be. It's like this guy really is a Ghost."<p>

Krystal nodded, "That doesn't explain why that convict fought the way he did."  
>Wolf scratched his chin, "Yeah I can't even come close to explaining that…" He said, "…like I said though. For right now, we sit and wait. Eventually that little lady in the sick bay is gonna wake up, and we'll at least have some level or answers. Till then get some rest, we should be in orbit around Katina in two or three days, all depends on when that panic restriction gets lifted from the Hyperspace Authority."<p>

Krystal chuckled, "They really are panicking about Ghost aren't they?"  
>"Yep," The old wolf replied standing up and heading for the door, "luckily for us, this also means that he's traveling the long way too. So with some level of luck we won't be that far behind him."<p>

It was as Krystal watched the old wolf leave the room that she stood and moved to the large window at the far end of the room, looking out into the dead of space. As she stood there, the vixen looked to her hand which gently rubbed her ribs. Whatever was going down in the Accord, she could assure anyone that they were in no way prepared for it. The vixen wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her own shoulders. It had been a very long time since the last time she shook the way she did thinking about what Ghost was possibly capable of, and it frightened her even more knowing that there was a high chance that Ghost was one of her own people exacting some sort of Vendetta against the Accord. Even with Wolf and the others beside her, she couldn't help but feel alone, there was little to no chance that Panther, Leon, or even Wolf could stand a chance against Ghost…and to her greatest fear, she had been brought to a grim conclusion that she was not nearly as strong as she had come to believe. Her faith in her own ability had been shaken, and when most she found she wished she were with her friends from Star Fox…she realized, that they simply would not be there… 


	4. Episode 3

**AN: Okay something about a recent update is not letting my chapters be uploaded the way they're written. They either come out as you see them as soon as they're uploaded, or they become one ENORMOUS, run on paragraph. if anyone knows how to cure this please let me know :(**

* * *

><p><strong>~Episode 3~<br>**_Do not pray for an easier life. Pray for stronger men – John F. Kennedy_  
><em><strong><br>**_****************  
>August 5th<br>0800hrs  
><strong>**Corneria Base of Military Operations**

A large room often affiliated with Accord affairs regarding the Lylatian criminals finds itself in constant use within the last week. A familiar looking gray furred hare sitting with a hand on his head, supported by the elbow that rested on the large round table in front of him. Three more of his Accord associates surrounded the table. A dark furred wolverine from the Stygian system, he , even now wore a pair of dark glasses and a red suit much like the one the General of Lylat wore. Another was a fairly well kept black furred feline, though from the Lylat system initially, the young feline was a very worthy candidate as ambassador to the Dan'jas system and it's affiliation with the Trinity Accord as well. Their discussions had been the very same for the past few days…  
>"What exactly are we doing to stop this General Mathius?" The hare asked looking to the wolverine.<br>_**  
><strong>_The thick bodied animal sighed, "So far our searches have come up with little to nothing…however it is The Ghost is managing to remove convicts from Styx he is doing so without approaching the planet itself."

"If you'll excuse me General…" The feline interrupted.  
>"Please do Miss Thorne." The hare replied.<br>"Please either Van or Rose," She smiled folding the rose colored shades she wore and hanging them from the collar of her shirt, "I recently came across a piece of information. I'll not relay upon the two of you how I got it but, it could shine some light on how these convicts keep escaping," She said plugging a small media drive into the table at with they were communed causing a small holographic image to be displayed above the surface. The image was of a small disk-shaped device roughly the size of a manhole cover, "what you are looking at here are the schematics of an Organic Matter Transferrance Device. It's almost the exact same as the ones we use to drop tanks into war zones, their just safe for organic matter. Apparently, whoever Ghost is…he has the resources and the assistance it would take to build this device. After that all he would need to do is port himself down to Styx…make all the right promises, and he'd have an army on his hands."  
><em><strong><br>**_The hare mused to himself, "That is a very tentative assumption Miss Thorne."  
>"Indeed…" Mathius responded, "…but, her assumption is also very valid. If Ghost is as intelligent as he has shown in recent days, he will stop at nothing, he could easily have coerced a knowledgeable enough person into building the device for him. There is no shortage of black market labor, General Hare."<br>_**  
><strong>_The old Lapin sighed with a heavy nod, "Yes, that is a valid point. That is some very interesting sleuthing Miss Thorne."  
>The feline smiled, chuckling a bit as their inability to call her by name, "Well, I was a detective before…I'd like to think that I was a good one."<p>

The hare sighed, "I would say that if you could dig something up like this, then yes a very good one. What of Ghost himself?"  
>The feline shook her head, "I have something. If it's what I think it is, it might just be him, if not I'm afraid that it may turn out to be a dead end. You see, I've been following a man that has very much the same M O. He's been killing all sorts of local big wigs in the Stygian System. An old ex-military anti–personnel sniper named Akuba Reiko. I think this could be him, but, it's not a one hundred percent deal, but, at the moment it's all we have."<p>

Mathius sighed, "Is there a particular team that you have to send in after someone like this?"  
>The old hare sighed, "Most mercs are either afraid of Ghost or if we're really unlucky working for him. I only know of two that are anywhere nearby."<br>"Where are they?" The pitch furred feline asked.  
>The hare leaned back, "In a small holding facility located on this base."Creed laughed out loud, "So you want me and Mika to stick out neck out for you assholes now? You know the very same people that were planning on executing the two of us just to make everybody sleep a little better?"<p>

The General, and ex-member of the fabled Star Fox team sighed, "I apologize Mister Tasser and Miss Eese…but, you have to understand our situation. When you are in charge of an entire militarized world, you tend to have to do things that you would normally never endorse."

Creed nodded lightly, "First give back my arms, and I may just think about it."  
>Peppy sighed, "The Links are on their way already," He replied, "you see after several…incidents, our storage facility is now on the other end of this base. My question is, what will it cost the Council in order to gain your conformity?"<p>

Mika folded her arms, "I was held down and strip searched by four guards that enjoyed it waaaaaay too much," She replied, "you owe me a lot more than just a little bit of money."

The old hare stiffed slightly as he turned his head to the vixen that stood across the room, "Matilda, any idea what this fine young lady is talking about?"  
>Very quickly the vixen stood at attention, "Um…no sir. I had no idea…"<br>"You'd best pray that I don't learn otherwise," Peppy replied, "I am not about to look the other way and watch others here be treated in such a manner. There is no proof that these two had anything to do with Miss Phoenix's murder. I am far angrier than most to hear that she is dead, as I watched the child grow up since she was barely old enough to fly a ship in the first place…but regardless of whether these two are guilty or innocent….that is NO excuse for such repugnant behavior from people that are supposed to uphold and protect the law. I want those four men in my office by the time I am finished here, and you are to accompany them. Understood?"

The vixen very quickly nodded before rushing out of the room, causing Creed to laugh out loud, "Okay…I have to admit. Loosing my arms was well worth seeing that…" He said, "…but, seriously once I get my hands on the four that did that to her. I'm gonna break each of them in half and forced their heads up their own asses." He pointed out with a frighteningly pleasant smile.

"I see you are a bit protective over you companion." Peppy chuckled, "I can fully respect that. I was after all once young," He said looking to Mika, "I do however hope that you will not take this as a reason not to trust the Enforcers as a whole. Most of them are genuine in their wanting to protect the populace, not abuse what little power they are actually given…" He said, "…so allow me to pay you back for this misunderstanding in full. At the moment I am having your modified Wolfen boarded onto a Trion class transport cruiser. The cruiser is yours and has already been registered under ownership of Creed Tasser and Mikasha Eese. Do not let the ship in any way sway your mind in your decision…the ship is already yours."

Creed looked to Mika before chuckling at the hare, "So we walk out right now…there's no questioning? We just take the ship and leave?"  
>Peppy nodded, "If that is what you choose to do yes."<br>"Prove it…" Creed said in a serious tone with a nod of his head.

The General reached into the folder he held sliding a stack of pages across the table they all sat at, "That is the information on the ship…" He said sliding over a smaller stack, "…deed and titles of ownership," He continued sliding across several smaller papers, "registrations and civilian protocol information. Note that your names are already on them. As I said the ship is yours simply because of this horrible mix up. You genuinely attempted to save Fara's life, and for that I thank you with my whole heart…however, at the moment my concern is bringing down the man responsible and I am here to ask for your assistance in doing so."

Mika leaned forward, "You know where the guy responsible for all this is?"  
>Peppy sighed, "It is only a lead. One of my associates seems to be under the impression that, either Ghost himself may be assuming the identity of a sniper that, as far as records show…died in a remote jungle on Kew during the Lylat Wars. Recently he was spotted on the scene of the crime of three assassinations; they were all hits on wealthy individuals that held a strong position in localized politics. Because of these three hits, it seems that Papetoon's recently opened Senate seat on the council will remain open for another eight to ten weeks at the least, until a new candidate can be qualified. He has recently been spotted around a local gentlemen's club called The Prancing Vixen."<p>

"Tisha's place?" Mika asked looking to Creed before looking back to Peppy, "You have any idea how many people go in and out of that place every day?"  
>"Then you know the place?" Peppy asked.<br>Creed sighed heavily, "Her and I…we did a little work there as dancers in order to get some emergency repairs done on our ship."

The three seemed to go silent for a bit before Mika sighed heavily, "Can Creed and myself have a moment to talk please?"  
>Peppy sighed, pushing out his chair while standing up, "Of course. I will make certain your Links are returned to you. When I come back."<p>

Creed sat there, of course living with the mink for so long, he had learned a lot about when it was time to listen and time to talk without pissing her off too much, "I think we should do it." She quickly said, "If he's allowed to keep on this path, Ghost is going to eventually kill a lot of innocent people. Now, normally I wouldn't care for helping the government…but, this is different, we'll be helping everyone…not to mention the fact that the Council is not well known for turning it's back on people that openly help them when they're down."

Creed sighed heavily, after a long span of terrible situations, there was little to no faith that he held for the military however, there was one person he did have faith in, "If it's what you want…I'll do it, but," He paused, "after we get on our way, you're gonna explain this whole ex-Viper thing. Remember our agreement? I have no secrets…"

Mika lowered her head, "I didn't mean to keep it from you Creed. I just know how you feel about the military…" She said, "…I know it was stupid of me to think it but, I actually thought for some reason you would think less of me if you knew."

The large fox sighed, "Well…I know now, and I still could care less…" He smiled, "…that tell you anything? I told you a long time ago that I'd never abandon you, and I don't intend to. Even if I happen to hate the idea, I'd follow you straight to hell. I'd think that, with all the shit we've been through together, you'd have learned that I intend to stick with you…" He said nudging her with his muzzle, "…to the bitter end if need be."

The pale mink kissed the side of Creed's muzzle with a light chuckle, "Why is it you can only be this articulate when you don't have your arms?"  
>Creed laughed, "I don't know…insecurity?"<p>

It was as the two sat there for a short time without exchanging any further words that the General stepped into the room; before a younger pink furred lapin moved into the room holding a familiar pair of metal arms. Mika quickly took the right of the two arms, before examining the locking pieces. She only paused for a moment to give Creed the time to brace himself before she forced the metallic appendage into the socket that it was meant for. Creed let out a pained growl through clenched teeth as his neural connections to the arm instantly jumped to life. He shook it off before quickly tearing the other arm from the table and jamming it into the socket on his left side. It was as he recovered from the instance of intense pain that he looked to Peppy…  
>"We've decided to do what you asked…" He said, "…when should we go?"<br>Peppy chuckled with a light smile, "How fast can you get to hanger thirty six?"

The smile that spread across Creed's face was something that Mika had not seen in a long time. It was an amazing thing, how quickly Creed and Mika made their way out of the building and through the streets. Their need for a new ship was covered now, and thanks to all of this, there would be little to no time in the world before they were on Papetoon…

**************  
><strong>August 5th<strong>  
><strong>1030hrs<strong>  
><strong>Cornerian Outer Aerospace<strong>

Creed still couldn't believe their luck, finding one nutcase on Papetoon couldn't be too hard; after all, aside form it's interesting nightlife, Papetoon was about the most normal place a person could spend a day. They were both amazed at the T-2600 cruiser that they were already given. Trion cruisers were among the most expensive ships Arspace Dynamics produced, they were fast, efficient, and didn't lax on their ability when it came to a conflict. It seemed like all the time and money and effort that had been placed on that old ship of theirs had been all for nothing. Mika and Creed couldn't have asked for a better ship. It was a rather standard design, a rectangular body, who's nose rounded off slightly into a large viewport. Six small wings surrounded the rear of the ship, where a number of large engines propelled it with monstrous force. The dull gray color was something that could clearly be taken care of much easier than most other problems, while they both seemed to like the white interior that came with most new ships; the colored panels that covered most of the walls were not metal but, a rather resilient form of plastic that had, since it's creation, proven to be quite strong, though it's primary purpose in most applications was it's ability to resist fire. It was a much larger vessel than Creed was used to, clearly meant for a crew of roughly fifteen or twenty hands. A training hall, galley that could actually seat the two comfortably, and even a personal restroom for each of the rooms. Not much time went by before the two found themselves sitting at a small table in the galley while the ship sped toward their destination…  
>Creed sighed, "So? Viper huh?"<p>

The pale Mink shook her head, "It's a little more complicated than that," She replied, "see when I was still in high school…second year. I was…" She said giving him a shaken look, "…attacked," Noticing the unrealized look on his face Mika sighed, "I was raped okay…there were three of them. They each had their fun, beat the hell out of me, one of 'em cut me a few times. Then they rolled me into the street and left me there for dead. My uncle was once a Viper, he started training me to defend myself once I recovered. Knowing that I could fight started giving my confidence back. When I eventually got back to school, they decided they were going to attack me again. I guess they'd liked having their way with someone…cuz they'd done it to three other girls while I was gone. Two of them died," She sighed, "when I came to. Two of the guys were dead and the third, well he'll never walk again, spine damage. They tried me as an adult, and they were planning on sending me to Styx but, my Uncle called in a favor. Had me conscripted into the Vipers. You pretty much know everything that's happened since then…"

The large fox sighed, "Sorry…but, when I told you I wanted to know everything about you all those years ago I wasn't kidding," He said, "I know I haven't said it much…but, I love you," He said as he approached her pulling her out of her seat and into his arms, in a warm embrace, "and if I ever see find the guy you left alive…I'll tear out his spine out and wrap it around his neck."

Mika chuckled, "I love you too Creed," She replied breaking away from him and giving him a spry smile as she turned to leave the room, "if you're interested…I think I could use a shower." She said leaving the room.  
>Creed chuckled a bit, "Now that I think about it I could use a little shower myself."<p>

It would be a bit of a trip to Papetoon from Corneria but, it was no real bother for the two of them. Time always seemed to make no real difference when it was they were together. Whatever problems awaited them on Papetoon, it didn't matter now, the only thing that was on either of their minds was the fact that they were together…

**August 7th**  
><strong>0924hrs<strong>  
><strong>Fichina<strong>

The young vixen's field of vision was blocked out almost completely as she pressed a small button that would caused the form of her captain to appear on the screen before her, "Why exactly are we investigating this transmission signal?"

Wolf sighed, "Because it could be that sick fuck again."  
>Krystal sighed, "If I couldn't handle his little pet without being injured like this, what makes you think we could stop him with the three of us injured?"<br>Wolf chuckled, "We're not stopping him, just spying. If it is him we'll call in the cavalry. You, me, and Panther can't handle him in our condition, but, I have a feeling that the entire Cornerian Armada can."

Though the vixen still had some general doubts about what was going on, she had no real choice; as captain of Star Wolf, the lupine's order was complete. It was however as they headed for the surface that a red light and a blaring alarm that was warning her teammate was down. Clearly since she'd been speaking with Wolf, the blue vixen looked to her left…nothing was left of Panther's ship but, a smoking trail that led down beyond the clouds. In an instant reaction to the situation, Krystal pulled her Wolfen to the left, diving down below the thick clouds and into the blankets of snow that covered the planet. Though incredibly beautiful, the world's terrains were not to be trifled with. It was as her ship dove into the violent snowstorms of Fichina however, that her ship rocked violently; ice began to climb up the nose of her ship and soon a slightly more grim alarm sounded…the one that warned her a crash was imminent. She tried her hardest to regain control of her fighter, only to see a second trail of smoke veer off to her right, vanishing into the white blankets of snow…  
>"Wolf…" She called into her ships' communicator, "…can you hear me?"<p>

The reply was hazy but it was enough, "Krystal this is a recording. I connected it to your alert systems in the case that something should go wrong. If we're separated at any point, find and head for the closest landmark that people would recognize, everyone will know to meet up there. Despite anything else, try to stick with a team member, and if you're lost with Panther…try not to kill him."

The vixen sighed, "I'm going to take that as a no," She said adjusting a few things on her command console, "there that should keep my engines good, but, as soon as I land I won't be leaving again anytime soon but, we can fix that with the Control Center. With all the ice on my ship, I'd never make it back into orbit anyhow."

Seeing as she could still make out a traceable trail from Panther's ship, the vixen veered off of her current path twisting down toward the hills of the snow covered lands surrounding the small building that was clearly located to the west of the downed ship in her sight. The fact that he'd crashed was not good for the team, finances were already suffering as it were, and now there seemed to be a good chance of the team having to cough up the cash to pay for a new fighter. No matter her mindset on how horrible the day was turning out already; Krystal's mind snapped back to the ongoing fact that she could not sense Panther's mind. Normally it was a mind that she would never attempt to establish a connection with, but, seeing as how he'd crashed it was simply team practice to keep all the members of the team alive as long as possible. It was as Krystal pulled her ship in to land next to the wrecked one, that her own ship's engines finally gave out causing her ship to drop suddenly, luckily enough, onto the landing gear that she barely managed to get down. Though her ship did manage to land on it's extended legs; it leaned to one side, as the leg on the right of the ship either bent or snapped off due to her sudden drop.  
>The first moment when she opened the cockpit of her Wolfen, caused the vixen to suddenly recoil. The biting wind mixed with the near arctic temperature tore into her, The chill seemed to move through her bones, blowing right through her. Like any other mercenary would, the vixen shuffled through the cargo bay of her ship for a small device she clasped around her neck. The device was possibly one of the most helpful she'd ever seen or heard of. Known as a Self-contained Personal Climate Device; the SPCD warmed the blood in the main arteries of the neck, causing it's circulation through the body to keep body temperatures at a livable level in situations like the one she was in. It could also be set to cool the body in a hotter environment, it was a device that she choose never to go on a mission without, as it had saved her skin in more than one situation. The vixen only really took with her the First-Aid Kit from her ship, and of course her spear when she set off toward Panther's downed ship. It was of course a fair distance from where she'd landed but, not too far a walk for someone wearing an SPCD. Panther's ship, as it turned out, was not beyond repair, however it would require transport back to the Great Wolf in order to become flight ready again. The nose of the Wolfen had been collapsed inward, this much would not be easily repaired. The cockpit glass had shattered, this was an irritating task but, it could be repaired without need of a mechanic. However, the fact that the ship's nose was buried sever feet into the snowy hillside did discourage her a bit as to how they might get free of Fichina, as the entire fuselage had already been covered in a thick layer of ice. The only real inspiration that she received toward the feline's escape from the still smoking wreckage, was a pair of increasingly had to spot footprints in the thick snow that led across the expanse toward what looked like a large hill in the distance…<p>

She was amazed at how far the feline had managed to walk after such a crash, but, after a distance realized that he'd clearly been injured, and it had started to effect his travel. Small droplets of blood were beginning to show that he was hurt, his step became slightly parted, informing her that whatever adrenalin he'd been working off of had clearly given out, and an injury was causing him to limp heavily. Were it possible to run with snow up to her knees, she'd have increased her pace of walking but, as it went there was little she could do. In a spark of inspiration however, Krystal pulled her spear from it's sheath, not bothering to extend it before aiming it's point at the snow in front of her. A charge of blue energy coiled along the elaborate patterns carved into the golden shaft before a stream of flames burst from it's headpiece. The snow hissed as the blue flames turned the snow into no more than a sloshing mush under her boots. Very quickly the young Cerinian rushed forward, she was not certain how long she could keep a steady stream of flames gushing from the weapon but, she was certain that it would not be long. The footsteps eventually led the vixen to a small cavern set into the base of a small hillside, inside however she did manage to find Panther, huddled into a corner, cradling the injury that had been bleeding. There was a deep gash in his right arm, and his left leg did not look broken, but, was swollen much more than his right. It took her no time to patch up what injuries he did have, but, the feline had been in this cold environment far too long without any type of protection and his vitals were very weak. Though she did not like the idea, Krystal removed the device around her neck fixing it around the freezing panther's neck instead…  
>Moment's went by and Krystal found herself huddling into her own arms in an attempt to keep her own body heat up; she managed to find a few things around the cavern that were expendable enough to burn, but, in the end there really was only one way to keep from freezing to death. Though it went against most things she felt and thought, the vixen lay beside Panther, and pulled him tightly into her body. She could instantly feel the warmth that the device was granting him. Though it wasn't something she was intending, the comfort of her body finally gathering back what warmth it had previously had, caused her to slowly lull off to sleep…<p>

Though she was not certain how long she'd been out, Krystal's eyes slowly focused on the wall of the cavern; she had a terrible dream that Wolf was walking through the blizzards outside and fell dead in the snow before their own bodies were discovered by a team that had gone to investigate the fact that Star Wolf was missing. It was a terrible thought to sit there and freeze to death waiting for Panther to wake up. Suddenly the vixen's eyes narrowed, her lip curled into a frightening snarl, and a low growl escaped her throat as a strong hand clenched down tightly over her right breast. The black feline soared from the mouth of the cave sliding into the snow. He quickly sat up shaking his head as he looked back to the cavern…  
>"Pa-panther w-w-w-will die out here." He half shouted.<p>

"Panther will die in here!" Krystal's voice burst from the cavern.  
>The feline wrapped his arms about himself, without the device she'd taken from him, he'd surely freeze, "Panther is sorry!" He shouted, "Please do not let Panther die out here."<p>

Not receiving a response Panther quickly walked into the cavern only to have the point of a spear lightly grind into the tip of his nose, "Ever touch me like that again…"  
>The feline threw up his hands, "Understood…never again without permission. In Panther's defense however, you were pressed against…" A light twist of the spear caused him to nod lightly, "…shutting up."<p>

Krystal simply sighed as she found a spot to recover her strength, using her spear to clear a path in the snow was far more exhausting than she had hoped it would be. Luckily enough Panther turned out to be fine as long as he didn't try grabbing her body again. Once her body was warm enough, she found it to be much more productive to simply pass the SPCD between Panther and Herself to keep either of them from freezing. As she took her time for recovering, her only real thoughts became worried one's, regarding wether or not Wolf was looked back to the site where his ship lay, though not ruined, it would not be capable of flight until it was no longer iced over; he'd already determined that the Environmental Control Center was actually no longer fully functioning. Thought his team was important, if he could only manage to get the ECC under control, they would no longer be in danger of the world's more than harsh environment. Were he to actually repair the Control Center, there would be no interference to keep him from calling their personal communicators, and the trek across the landscape would not be nearly as horrible as it initially would be for him now. The lupine's home planet of Macbeth was often quite harsh during it's own winters, though nothing compared to the year round weather on Fichina, it was still much more cold than most people deal with in their lives. He was lucky enough to always have his favorite blaster on him; a bladed, rustic looking piece that his grandfather had left with him. It was an old weapon and looked almost human, if it weren't for the fact that it actually was indeed a blaster. Finally, after what seemed like forever in that place, Wolf looked out over a cliff that overlooked the large, round, structured building. It was so close, and yet so far below; the cliff was possibly just shy of a hundred or so feet up, and as far as he could see there was little to no real way down…  
>"Magnificent building…"<p>

Wolf nodded slightly unaware of what was going on, "Yeah, modern marv..e…" The lupine paused before shooting about only to find a white cloaked figure standing behind him.

Wolf whipped his blaster around at the stranger's face, "Ghost?"  
>The cloaked figure simply stood there, "Who?" He asked.<br>Wolf looked the animal over, he was clearly the same height as Ghost, but, something was different, This animal held a sheathed katana by the red rapping about the scabbard near the guard of the sword itself, Ghost was so far reported to not carry any weapons at all…

"Turn around…" Wolf demanded still holding his weapon threateningly, "…slowly."

The stranger slowly stepped in a full circle giving Wolf the opportunity to see that the symbol that Ghost was known for was not embossed on the back of this animal's cloak, "Did you find what you were looking for?" The stranger asked.

"Who the hell are you?"  
>The stranger sighed, "A Remnant, relic of the past. Little more than a memory. An unwelcomed one by most. This is my land, I have lived here for years, it's a bit rare that people come down to visit. Especially someone like Wolf O'Donnell."<p>

Wolf paused for a moment, it wasn't a surprise that this person knew who he was but, there was no possible way that he had lived here for years, "You've been living here? In this kind of climate?"

"A person can survive anywhere as long as they have the will to do so," The stranger said, "I take it you are not here on a pleasure trip."  
>Wolf sighed, "We were investigating an outward transmission from the Control Center."<p>

The stranger sighed, "I am…sorry. If it's any consolation, it was a very important call."  
>Wolf sighed, "It was just a false alarm. Now I've gotta waste all this fucking time when I could be helping find out about why these freaks killed Phoenix."<p>

The cloaked swordsman cocked his head, "I take it that this system is in some…disarray?"  
>Wolf sighed putting his weapon away, "Look you're clearly not who I thought you were at first," He said, "I need to get that building back up and running so that I can find my teammates and get the hell off this fucking ice cube of a planet."<p>

"There was another crashed pilot trudging through the snow about twenty miles to the east of here," The cloaked figure said pointing off to the foothills to the east, "he was very easy to spot in all this white. He was injured. Was he one of yours?"

"That's Panther…" Wolf replied, "…why didn't you help him?"  
>The cloaked figure tilted his head slightly, "I didn't realize that you and your friends' health were my responsibility," He said walking off, "there is a path down the hillside. It is to the east of you around the basin. You should find it well it is clearly marked."<p>

The wolf sighed heavily as he walked off, "Krystal I hope you can hold on just a little longer. That's way too far to walk in this without one of the two of you kicking off."

The cloaked figure watched as the gray wolf walked off, it was the first visitor he had seen in what felt like ages; though he enjoyed his privacy and his alone time…it was very rude of him to be this way to the first guests he'd seen in so long. There was little he could actually do to help, but, after all this time…it seemed there was little to nothing he wished to do. Wolf however headed along the path he'd been pointed out to only to find a small pillar of stones, neatly stacked in order to mark the path that led down the basin. A short glance back to the place he'd come from, the strange fellow still seemed to be standing there looking out to him. Wolf found it odd that this person would still be standing there watching him as he made his way down the angled path that led down toward the building far below him. The wolf shook his head as he cautiously made his way down the path, something about the cloaked man seemed familiar…though he was strange, Wolf kept getting the feeling that he should go back, ask more questions…but, as he looked back to the cloaked person, he was gone. His path having finally led him to the building. It was as he looked around that Wolf took notice of the door to the Control Center; it had clearly been cut through by some sort of incredibly sharp blade. This was clearly done by the person that had spoken with him. Wolf made his way through the building, the controls were all in tact but, several systems of wires about the place appeared to have been sabotaged…  
>"Hmmm…" The wolf mused to himself, "…this was a setup, but, why?" He asked going to work repairing the wiring that had been damaged only to find that the damages were very minimal, "It's like this was done just to get us down here. Still that guy seemed so familiar…" He said to himself as he worked with the wiring, "…it was almost like he knew that I wouldn't shoot. I have to find out who that guy is, and why he's dressed like one of those terrorists when he clearly isn't one. I wish I could just make sense out of any of this…at least then I wouldn't be so damned confused."<p>

Thought everything had turned out better than he'd hoped for, still the fact was that this detour was costing him valuable time, and there was no telling what Ghost would be up to next. The man's acts were becoming more and more brazen, eventually it was clear to Wolf that Ghost would do something that would shake the entire system…

**************  
><strong>Papetoon, Targer City<strong>  
><strong>August 6th<strong>  
><strong>1700hrs<strong>

Targer was not exactly where Creed had expected a terrorist to be operating, after all, Papetoon in comparison to Corneria was nearly the same as comparing the countryside to a utopian city. The few important people that did frequent the area were none too important to the internal structure of the Lylat system or the Accord, spare the few people he did know that often visited Papetoon to get away from the life that they lived in the big cities. Creed and Mika had long ago decided that their best place to keep watch on the city's night life, was to do so atop the tallest building in the center of the city itself. Keeping scope over the entire city was hard work, with Mika watching over a small computer that was tapping into every security system in the city, while Creed kept his eyes peeled, while at the same time looking over a few different files…  
>"So far I've got two senators that are still here," He said, "a couple famous models, and a few random actors. The normal visitors trying to get away from all the bullshit."<p>

Mika sighed nodding, "I've been going over these videos for hours and I still can't find any sign of this Reiko person."  
>It was as Creed went over the paperwork that he suddenly looked back and forth between two files, "Hang on. You notice something about this Reiko's attack patterns?" He asked, "same MO every time. Rich, alone, usually in some sort of position where the person will be immediately noticed. That sounds a little odd to me for a professional assassin…don't ya think?"<p>

Mika suddenly tapped the keyboard of her system, "Think that's weird? Take a look at this guy…" She said pointing to the screen in front of her, "…guy spends six hours from the look of it in a dinner without ordering or eating anything. Just as this lady on the street walks by he just gets up and walks away."

Creed made his way to the computer where he found the screen frozen on the image of a black furred fox, "That's not Reiko. Any I.D matches yet?"  
>Mika sighed, "No. System is taking some time coming back with the profile search. That usually means that there are files on him that some people don't want to have found."<p>

"Yeah, look at the way he's following that lady," Creed pointed out, "professional if I ever saw one. Probably even military."  
>Mika paused with a light gasp, "Not military…Black Ops. According to all of this, he's part of an underground unit called Black Star. Other than all of this, Black Star is wrapped up in so much secrecy that I doubt even Xander could crack into it. Whatever this Black Star is, I'm breaking more laws than I should be just reading about it. I mean look at this shit…" She said, "…genetics, gene splicing, underground weapon research. Whatever the military is up to…it's boarder lining on conspiracy grade stuff here."<p>

Creed bent down, "Hmm…Dravyn Dark huh? Doesn't sound like a real name to me. Doesn't look too dangerous, but, if he's Black Ops. I know better than that; try to keep a tab on him. He might be here for a reason."

"I'll say he probably is," Mika replied, "there's no way someone like that is here for no reason at all. Oh, speak of the devil…" She said, "…look who I found."  
>Creed chuckled as he saw the form of a gray coyote on the screen, "How long ago was that recorded? Where was he?"<p>

The mink looked through the video again, "Lets see…" She said, "…kay this was six hours ago. It was recorded across the street from a small stand where it looks like he was ordering a taco. I guess he likes ancient human food…" She chuckled, "…honestly I think they're disgusting myself, too greasy."

"I don't think this really matters right now," Creed replied, "can you see where he headed?"

Mika flipped through a few more videos, "Looks like he went north, keep following the videos…and that places him. High end district of Valliance Park. Not sure why but, it looks like he entered the old control tower there, and never came back down. I think that's where he's been hitting all of his targets from. Getting all their positioning and then finding them all across the city and hitting them all from the same point in the city. If this is true his understanding of trigonometry would have to be unbelievable. To calculate all the factors and all. Some of the victims have been found miles away from that place, how he could hit them with the kind of accuracy that's been displayed is amazing. The question now is. How do we take him alive?"

Creed chuckled as he watched the video seeing the coyote's eyes glued to the backside of a young feline that moved by, "Don't worry I think I've found his weakness." He replied smiling at the mink.  
>Mika sighed with a light chuckle, "Why do I have this feeling that my ass has a lot to do with this weakness?"<br>Creed smiled patting the mink's backside, "Because you've always had a nice ass," He chuckled, "and it looks like we're dealing with an ass man."At the far end of Valliance Park, people who visited the park often stopped by to at least catch a glimpse of an odd little tower; though it was little more than a surveillance control center for the direct area of the city, it was shut down long ago. Since then it had been designed to look like an old lighthouse; oddly enough most people found it's construction to be quite charming, even though it was nothing but a tall white building with a cone shaped red roof. Most found it to be some sort of landmark even though in traditional layouts it was not fully registered or recognized as one. The small control center inside the tower was light with screens that circled the room where there would have been a large lamp, had it of course been a real lighthouse in the first place. The screens were lit up, each of them depicting different images from around the city. A comfortable chair rested at the far window, seated on a small rail that circled the entire room, a strong kick to either side would send the seated individual on a small ride around the room. Upon the seat rested a young dark gray furred coyote; his face was marked with several small scars, one completely robbing him of the right eye that had, since a short time ago, been replaced by a chromatic looking metal contraption with a red iris at it's center. An old cigarette hung from his lip as he leaned back into his seat, resting peacefully before the still smoking cigarette fell from his lip landing against his chest. The blue eyed canine leaped up causing the high powered rifle, who's barrel rested against the pit of his arm, to clatter to the hard stone floor. However, the animal shot upright swinging his arms out in front of him as if he were indeed holding the rifle. The, would be, sniper looked to his empty hands before looking to the rifle that had fell to the floor only to shake his head, before lighting up another cig…  
>"I think I've been in here too long."<p>

With a long yawn and a stretch the coyote turned to look over the different camera angles from around the city. Above each of the screens were several numbers, each number bared it's own significance and upon the screen below each number, a small aiming reticule had been placed with a black marker. Looking about the different screens, the coyote stopped to look at the screen that showed a lovely white mink walking down the street. His eyes seemed to instantly go to the mink's well manicured legs, as she walked before something large and red seemed to move into his view…  
>"Who beefstick! Move your ass!" He yelled at the screen shaking it violently,<p>

Suddenly the canine sighed as his eyes caught another screen, where a middle aged leopard sat on a bench where he was clearly waiting for a bus. With a heavy sigh, the coyote made his way back to his seat before lifting his rifle and looking to a small carved set of numbers in the floor, before moving the seat around the room. The sniper then stopped where the numbers at his feet matched that of the numbers on the screen where the young leopard was seated. He then used the barrel of his rifle to push the window open before resting the end of the barrel on a small Y shaped stand. Keeping the butt of the rifle rested on his shoulder, the coyote took a brief glance over his shoulder at the small screen, and made a slight adjustment to his rifle before lightly squeezing the trigger. The silent whisper from the weapon was unheard by any outside, but, as the coyote turned, to observe the screen once again. The leopard made a light jump before his head simply fell lip against his chest. It wasn't until he approached a small photo of the leopard, putting a black X across his face, that the coyote noticed a black form in one of the screens…  
>"Why hello Dravyn…" He chuckled, "…still after my piddly ass huh? Too bad, I'm not done yet," He said looking to the screens, "now where'd that hot little white tail go?"Mika shuttered, "Wow…" She said, "…ever get that feeling that someone's watching you?" She asked looking to Creed.<br>Creed chuckled, "I figured you'd be used to that by now. Hell my eyes are glued to your tail every time you turn around."  
>"It's a little different with you…" Mika chuckled, "…this just feels strange."<p>

As the two made their way down the streets a siren sounded causing them to rush off in the direction of the blaring sirens. It took some time but, when they finally did arrive at the scene Mika and Creed found a group of Enforcers surrounding a scene where a middle aged leopard sat on a bus stop. Being mercenaries on this case, it took little persuasion to get into the scene itself where Creed began to work over the scene. The leopard was slumped over in his seated position, causing Creed to push him so that he lay back against the back rest of the bench he sat on; this openly displayed the small entry wound in the feline's chest. Looking around a bit more Creed walked around behind the bus stop, where he found that the bullet that killed the feline had cone through the wall behind him much lower than the spot where it hit the animal. Creed then stepped out in front of the leopard looking out over the buildings that were located across the street…  
>"We've already checked that…" One of the Enoforcers said, "…the bullet didn't come from any of those buildings."<p>

Creed nodded, "You're right," He replied, "I came from over them. Valliance park is in that direction isn't it?"

The Officer scoffed, "Yeah…" He replied, "…nearly six miles away."  
>"Well then…" Creed replied, "…you guys do whatever it is you'll do, and we'll go catch this guy."<p>

Creed and Mika were both in the park before too long, where Mika and Creed began to look over the park; it still didn't make much sense to Creed for someone to make something as ridiculous as a six mile shot across the city…but, at the moment it was what they had to go on. After some time, the two found themselves standing at the base of the tower at the far end of the park. As they inspected the area Mika pulled a small city map that she'd picked up upon entering the park…  
>"Hmm…" She said, "…look at this. It's not perfect but, it's high enough."<p>

Creed nodded, "You're right. It's still kinda ridiculous to think that he's doing all of this from right here though."  
>Mika folded her map, "Well despite all of that. I'm going up there. Keep your communicator online and call me from that bench over there if you see someone coming toward the tower."<p>

The pale mink headed into the tower while Creed found his seat; oddly enough Mika found that the interior was oddly cool, clearly it had recently been set for someone who did not care for the heat all too much. She found it odd that several park goers, as well as the small plaque in front of the tower, all seemed to mention that this tower had been powered down when the security center was moved to a more secure location in the city. When she finally reached to top of the tower, she couldn't believe her eyes; all the computer screens that were being fed information from all the security systems in the city could give a person a view of the entire city all at once. The other parts of the room housed a small cot, and a small living area. Clearly this was someone's headquarters, and it was as she noticed a wall covered in photos that she took pressed a small button on a device hanging from her ear that caused a small mic to slide out along her cheek…  
>"Creed…" She half whispered, "…this is it. He's got photos of all those people we got in that file. This is odd though, it doesn't look like he's after anyone in particular. Some of these people are important but, others…well there are others here that weren't even listed in the file."<p>

"Really?" Creed's voice replied, "Could he just be trying to cover his own tracks?"

"Clearly you two have been seriously misled…" A strange voice caused Mika to shoot about facing a black furred fox that stood, leaning against the far wall of the room.  
>"Mika who the hell was that?"<br>The strange black fox stood there looking over a small file that he held in his hand while Mika held him at gunpoint, "I…I don't know but, I don't think he's the sniper…"

The fox chuckled, "You're the two that the General sent huh?" He asked, "don't tell me. They were gonna frame you two unless you did the military a favor…did they give you a ship too?"  
>Mika's jaw dropped for a moment before she developed a rather pissed off expression, "Creed I think we've been had."<p>

The fox sighed, "True, that you have. See Reiko is on route to a more…personal vendetta than anything else."  
>Mika narrowed her eyes at the fox for a moment, "Dravyn Dark," She said, "Creed this is that Dravyn person we looked in on," She said looking to Dravyn, "I suppose neither of you have anything to do with Ghost then?"<p>

Dravyn sighed heavily as he tossed his file to the seat that seemed to be set to move around the entire room, "No…" He replied, "…I take it that you were sent here in order to arrest Reiko."  
>Mika nodded, "Yeah we were. What's a military man like you doing here?"<p>

Dravyn laughed, "Military?" He asked shaking his head, "I'm afraid you've got Black Star confused. I'm actually here in course of what Reiko knows. Where we can find Fox McCloud. I believe that with McCloud we could actually get this all done. He and his team have always been different."

Creed chuckled through Mika's communicator, "Maybe you didn't do your homework too damn much pretty boy; but, McCloud. Alive or dead isn't gonna do shit in order to help Lylat do anything."  
>Mika sighed, "He's got a point you know?" She relayed the message to Dravyn, "after everything that happened to McCloud. There is no way he'd help anyone."<p>

Dravyn sighed, "I am afraid you may be under evaluating the situation. You see, there is someone being put in danger's way at the moment that may persuade him to do so even if not for Lylat…" He replied, "…Star Wolf was hired to take back the equipment that was stolen from Vector Industries."  
>"Why would you bother telling us this?" Mika asked.<p>

"Very perceptive Miss Eese," Dravyn chuckled, "you and Mister Tasser's reputation is something that hasn't escaped Black Star, even despite the rather elaborate lengths that you have both gone through to keep your little team's jobs secret just to keep Miss Eese's past in the military out of the picture but, you both see how well that works out now," He said, "like it or not they will find a way to get what it was they wanted."

Mika sighed as she finally holstered her weapon, "So what do you want? If you knew all of this then chances are you already knew that we'd be here."  
>Dravyn chuckled, "Now you're catching on. I'll not bother you with the details of how I knew you'd be here but, it would be rather difficult to understand anyhow. The fact of the matter will simply remain that, at this moment it would be much more productive for the two of you to step aside while I round up our good friend Reiko. Then the two of you can accompany me to the Black Star ship orbiting this planet and we can begin to discuss how you can help us find a solution to this whole terrorist business."<p>

"If he can see that we were gonna be here," Creed replied, "how is it he can't just track the son of a bitch himself?"  
>Dravyn nodded, "Understandable…" He replied to the communicator Mika was still wearing, "…you see for some reason. As advanced as our methods, they do not seem to work on this Ghost person. So that leaves us to more low brow methods of tracking him. We have contacted a tracker…but, he refuses to see us until we meet to his demands. We have a man visiting him in Stygian as we speak."<p>

Mika sighed, "I don't think we have much of a choice."  
>"Yeah, you're probably right…" Creed replied, "…just get out of there before this nutjob gets back."<p>

As the two made their way out to the bench where Creed sat, Mika hugged him before heading out. It wasn't until they were some way away that the lumbering beast of a fox turned stopping the black fox with a solid palm on his chest…  
>"If this is a set up…" He said with a light growl, "…I promise that by the time anyone stops me…I'll be beating you to death with your own legs."<p>

Dravyn looked at the large fox with a crooked smile, "Know this…Creed…" He said snapping his fingers, causing the contents of the trash can directly to Creed's right to ignite into bright orange flames, "I do NOT turn my back when I make a promise, and you have my word that I would never do such a thing. For right now I would suggest backing off before Reiko comes back, he knows my face and will not hesitate to make a run if he thinks that I after him."

As the three headed to a safe distance from the tower, Creed couldn't help but to wonder what it was he and Mika had gotten themselves into; and moreover who this walking firestarter was that they'd made contact with was. Oddly enough, Creed did feel that he could trust his word, it was something about his manner. Dravyn always looked him in the eyes when talking to him or addressing him directly, he never looked away, and never changed his expression when the subject seemed to turn serious. Whatever the situation was there was, at least having this person with them would most likely make capturing Reiko that much easier. Unfortunately Creed's biggest problem was the feeling that he and Mika had just stepped in something, and by the time they were out of it, he was certain they'd come to hate the smell of it…


	5. Episode 4

**~Episode 4~**

_Men are not prisoners of fate, but, prisoners of their own mind – Franklin D. Roosevelt_

**August 3****rd**

**0530hrs**

**Kew City**

Tucked away in the shadows of Kew lays a small bar; surprisingly well kept and clean for such a small building in the middle of such a horrible city. Being one of the centers of organized crime in the Krazoa System, many people seemed to seek out Kew by means of running from their problems. Often enough, this very bar seemed to bring solace to the citizens of the city that were in need to get away from it all. A few waitresses seemed to keep the eager males coming back enough to supply the establishment with a steady flow of dispensable income. The upkeep of the small building was left in the care of the animal that had only purchased it a few short years ago. Fayte often found himself alone during the nights but, thanks to the bar's popularity alone, the local criminal organizations did not bother to harass the place in fear of the general populace of the area standing up to them. Days would sometimes go by without any sort of business, while other days seemed to bring an never ending stream of patrons to the small establishment. It was a hectic life that Fayte had grown quite used to, a far stretch in the excitement his short life with the military managed to bring, but, then again his military life was something that he was very happy to say good bye to. Oddly enough it seemed that every day of his life seemed to bring something new to him, and in those days he was always happy, fore he was certain that it was the little things that he would essentially miss in his life some day. For the time being however it was a time he was simply intent on enjoying for what it was…

The August chill in the air on Kew was something that brought rain or snow most days; a light snow storm in the city painted the streets a pale white, as a tan furred, long eared hare stood at the window of the small bar looking to the outside with her arms folded across her chest, clutching her coat tightly to herself. She was a regular employee to the bar, and was very noticeable by her dark blue, shoulder length hair, as well as a black stripe of fur that traveled down her right side, from above her right eye, scaling down her front, to her right knee. It was as she stood there that a familiar young fox approached her from behind; he was your average Papetoon fox; chestnut colored fur, with the standard white that stretched from his muzzle down under his shirt. His build was rather large for his size, and a white tuft of hair on his head often caused others whom did not know him personally to mistake him for the missing Fox McCloud. It was most often the fact of his missing left eye that eventually caught the attention of any animal that made the mistake…

Fayte reached over the hare's shoulder cinching a small envelope into the crook of her folded arms, "Little rainy day bonus for the stage show you put on for the guys last night."

Sasha chuckled as she noticed the steaming cups that he'd sat on the table behind them, "Don't worry about it. You're perfectly welcome to stay here tonight."

There was an extended silence as the two sat down, "Fayte…" The bunny paused, "…I know it sounds ridiculous but…"

Fayte reached across the table pushing the hare's chin up, causing the light to show the dark swollen mess around her right eye, "You stay here as long as you think you need to. You have anywhere else to go?"

Sasha shook her head, "No…" She replied taking a sip of her drink, "…I don't have anything now. The bastard burned my clothes and my things…"

Fayte sighed, "Well there's a spare room upstairs that I've been using for storage," He said, "so I'll make you a deal. Help me toss out all the old crap, and you can use that room till we find a place for you to stay."

"You know I overhead you talking about this place moving to Corneria." Sasha deftly changed the subject.

Fayte chuckled, "Well I've been thinking about it but, there's really not a whole lot of a point in it. Besides we both know that the only think keeping my customers coming in here is you girls prettying up the place."

"That can't be true," Sahsa replied, "besides, if it weren't for you Widow wouldn't be in such a good spot now. She's got a great apartment, a nice job, and you taught her how to read. Hell you're probably the closest thing she knows toward a father figure."

Fayte sighed, "Well that's not my point. The point is that I'd never leave my four favorite hostesses. I just don't think that I could do that."

Sasha smiled, "I don't think any of the girls would have it any other way really. Widow, Azure, and Amber would have a fit if you up and left. I wouldn't take it very well either."

Fayte chuckled, "That was sort of why I brought it up. I'm still interested in moving the business, but…only if you four decide to come with me," He replied causing the lapin to smile, "I've made that sort of mistake with my friends before. I won't leave a single one of you behind, if any of you decides you have too much reason to stay here then I'll stay."

The young bunny chuckled sheepishly, "I'd go anywhere with you Fayte."

Sasha placed a hand on top of his only to have the young barkeep gently pull his own hand back, "I'm sorry…"

Sasha shook her head, "No…" She said, "…I should have known better than that…you still think about her don't you?"

Fayte nodded, "Yeah, most of the time, but, there's not much you can really do about it once they're gone. I guess at some point I should just let it go…"

The bunny stood up and turned back to face the window, clearly displaying her backside to him with full intent of doing so, "When you're ready to put yourself back out there. Just remember this," She said looking over her shoulder, "I can do things to you that'll make you forget there ever was someone else."

Fayte laughed, "With your past I'm pretty sure you probably could," He said, "I'll keep that in mind though."

"Here comes Amber…" Sasha chuckled, "…you know if her tits ever got any bigger she'd need to pack 'em around in a wheelbarrow."

Fayte sighed, "You never hold back do you Sasha?" He asked, "look just take it easy alright, you know how sensitive she is about her body. I know their big but, if you said so she'd think you were calling her fat and she'd start crying. Last time something like that happened it took me three hours to calm her down."

Sasha nodded, "I know, I'd never bring that up to her," She said, "hell she's been through enough as it is."

It was as they talked that a young, tall, brown furred bear with bright red, long hair. Almost twice the height of the young hare that stood at the window, she brushed her hair back a bit, showing a very light brown circle of fur around one of her bright, beautiful blue eyes, "Morning Sasha, Hi Fayte." She sang.

"You're in a good mood this morning…" Fayte smiled handing her a small envelope, "…good reason too. I decided you all deserved a nice little bonus."

Amber quickly wrapped her arms around Fayte's head pulling his face in between her large breasts hugging him tightly, the suffocating lack of oxygen caused the poor fox's arms to flail about in desperate need of air before he finally managed to pull his face free…

"Amber…" He gasped, "…it's really…not easy…to breath…when your head is being crushed."

Once the fox was free Sasha stepped in front of Amber, "Listen sweetie," She said with a chuckle, "look down, can you see your toes?"

Amber looked straight down but, "No…"

The bunny pushed up on the bears oversized chest, "You're not fat honey. You just keep forgetting that these can easily kill a man."

Amber shook her head, "I'm sorry Fayte. No matter how many times that happens I keep forgetting that there's a hazard zone a foot under my chin."

Fayte chuckled, "It doesn't help that you're physically stronger than me," He added, "if I never learned about that ticklish spot on your sides you probably would have smothered me a long time ago," He laughed, "I appreciate your affection, but, as fun as your hugs are…they can be a little…lethal."

Amber took a seat at the same table that the others had been sitting at, the bar didn't quite open until seven, which gave the four ladies all more than enough time to show up for the day of work ahead. It was as Amber took her seat that she looked to the two of them, "Did you hear about this Ghost person?" She asked knowing that neither really paid attention to the news, "two days ago he killed the CEO of Arspace Dynamics."

Fayte looked to the bear for a moment, "Fara Phoenix? Dead? What happened?"

Amber shrugged her shoulders, "Don't know, they aren't leaking any details at the moment but, from what I heard so far it was just about the same as that senator last week. It was hit by those weird guys dressed like this Ghost person."

Sasha shook her head, "That's horrible. Didn't you know her?" She asked looking to the vulpine that had taken his place behind the bar.

"I met her once or twice when I was in the military…" Fayte nodded, "…she really had it in for Fox McCloud if I remember correctly. Still it's horrible that anyone would do that, she was one of the sweetest people I'd ever met."

Amber cocked her head to one side, "Aren't you angry?"

The fox shrugged his shoulders, "Not essentially, no. I met her and all, but, to be completely honest I didn't know that much about her," Fayte said before looking to the window across the room, "Well here comes Widow and Orchid. I want us to all talk about something before the morning rush starts in," He said moving about before pointing to Sasha, "you keep your mouth shut too. This is something we're all going to talk about at the same time. Got that?"

Sasha chuckled, "Yes…I understand," She replied, "no blabbing."

The other two ladies lived in relative close quarters to one another down the street and were usually the last to come in each morning. The first inside was a feline of average height; her very light blue fur, seemed to bring that much more attention to the darker blue, long, wavy hair that framed her smiling face. Among the four waitresses she was possibly the shortest, if only by a short few inches. As it would also happen her lovely form was the most petite of the four of them, though not sparing too much. Her casual dress usually consisted of a short tee shirt, usually of a red color, and some pair of rather tight fitting jeans…the feline had a strange love for jewelry. The other that entered the building was a young dark furred wolf, her long, bright red hair seemed to always draw people's attention to her rather sweet face, which suited her very well considering her light green eyes. Among the ladies she was said to have a very realistic figure and personality. The wolf did not talk as often as the others but, when with her friends she often became very talkative. Stripping away the heavy jacket she wore, Sasha looked to the low cut shirt she wore, white seemed to contrast her natural dark gray fur, however she was often warned about wearing skits to work, as some of the more rowdy patrons had a habit of using hidden devices to get upskirt shots of the waitresses that did wear one…

"Widow we've talked about the skirts." Fayte called from across the room.

The wolf looked down for a moment, "I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry about it…" Fayte replied with a chuckle, "…if anybody does anything stupid, I'll have Amber show them the door."

It was then that Fayte sat down, "Azure…" He said to the blue feline, "…Widow…" He added looking to the lupine, "…I'd like to talk to all four of you for a minute."

"Oh no…" Azure said plopping down into a chair, "…you're closing the bar."

Fayte chuckled, "Close…and only a might. But moving, not closing."

"Where "might" you move the bar?" Widow asked.

The fox sighed, "Corneria. Now before any of you get started with any questions let me say one last thing," He said, "you four are my reason for keeping this bar open in the fist place. If it weren't for you all, I wouldn't be doing anything…just wasting away and thinking about shit that would eventually lead to me either killing myself or drinking myself to death. That's why, I've chosen not to go anywhere, not unless every one of you four choose to come with me."

Widow and Azure froze for a moment before they looked to Amber and Sasha before looking back to him, "All of us? You want us all to come with you?" Azure asked.

"If you all choose to come along," Fayte replied, "then the bar will move to a secured place outside of Corneria City, after we're cleared to do so by the council"

Widow nodded, "I'll go."

Azure chuckled, "Oh don't get me wrong. I'd never want to hold Fayte back from something he wanted to do…I just wanted to know why?"

Fayte smiled, "Well look at it this way," He said, "bigger city means more people, more people means more visitors, and more visitors means you all get paid more."

Amber chuckled, "Even in a situation like this your only concern is us?"

Sasha laughed, "Of course it is," She said resting a hand on the fox's shoulder, "Fatye's always thinking about us."

"I guess that means we'll go as soon as we get everything sorted out then huh?" Fayte asked, "you'll wanna keep your things packed then. No telling how long the Council will take. Could be a few hours, could be a few days."

As the five of them stood by Fayte's ears twitched toward the door for a moment causing him to down his head a bit, "You four get upstairs…" He said causing them all to pause, "…NOW!"

The sudden raise in his voice caused the four to rush up the stairs without a second thought. He never rose his voice, never spoke crossly with them, never showed a hint of anger or sternness with them. However, when he did they knew he was serious, and sometimes his preconceptions could get a bit frightening. It was after the girls were all up stairs that the bell to the door chimed allowing a very large, turquoise scaled reptile to step into the place. Sasha watched on, she'd heard of Fayte's ability when it came to a fist fight but, it was something that she was yet to witness in person. Unfortunately as she watched from her hidden place upstairs, the massive crocodile pulled back on the light brown, wide brimmed hat he wore, allowing a cord to hold it around his neck. He didn't appear too menacing, though he was incredibly intimidating; his size alone would have made several of Fayte. His chest was wide enough to actually force him to turn his shoulders as he entered the room, and his arms were nearly as thick as the massive legs that supported his disgustingly large frame. She seemed to fall back as the croc's light hazel green eyes seemed to cut toward her before a sharp smile crept along his broad snout…

"What is it?" Amber whispered from a doorway out of sight.

Sasha looked back over her shoulder, "An Argon. My god I never knew they were so big, he's nearly the size of a Luxonian," She sighed, "I think Fayte knows him though. They're not doing anything. They're just standing there, they're saying something but, I can't hear any of it."

At the ground floor Fayte stood behind the bar where the massive reptile sat across from him, "I gotta give ya some credit mate…" The Argon chuckled, "…yer one right difficult bloke to track down."

Fayte looked about making certain the girls weren't close enough to hear him, "Sydney what the hell are you doing here? We had an agreement remember?"

"Well mate, circumstance change…" Sydney said nodding to a bottle that the fox held up, "…sure you herd o' this bloke calling himself the Ghost? His list so far includes Miss Phoenix, General Myers Fortten, Chief Councilman Edmund Charge, Senators Fraust, Danson, Fisk…" He said shaking his large head, "…the S.O.B is tear'n the Accord apart. I keep trying to track 'em but…someth'n ain't right. See, bloke's got no sent, he leaves no marks, no trails, and never leads on to where he's gonna strike next. I've been in the track'n business for more'n thirty years…and I ain't never seen anyth'n like this before."

As Sydney took a swig from his bottle, Fayte picked up a piece of paper that the reptile sat on the table, "Hmmm…must be more serious than I thought if the Stygian Consulate decided to send for you. You're pretty damn pricey but, I don't think they'd ever spend their money more wisely."

Sydney shook his head, "Ya been away too long mate…" He said slapping the page to the bar and pointing to a familiar symbol, "…join Union Contract mate…" He said tapping the page with each word, "…Lylat, Stygian, Dan'jas, Krazoa, even the Angel system is sending after this bloke an' they got noth'n ta do with it. I'm will'n to split the profit with ya mate."

Fayte sighed shaking his head while still keeping his eyes on the eleven figure sum posted on the paper, "Sixty billion? Why do you need my help?"

"I don't like admitt'n anyth'n but…" Sydney replied, "…this bloke's been givin my arse the slip since I started on him. It's been some time since I started after the bloke. I was hope'n that since yer all tech savvy and whatnot ya might find someth'n I overlooked," He said finishing his bottled drink, "give it a thought mate. Thirty billion be a lotta scratch; let ya take care of yer four little sheila's all nice like for a long time mate."

Fayte sighed as he turned his eyes toward the upstairs, before lowering his head with a feint sigh…

"That's what I was hope'n for mate," Sydney smiled, "look at it this way. Those little beauties of yers won't have ta do this anymore, hell with that kinda scratch on hand, you could forget about this whole bar thing and settle down mate. Maybe get yer mind back on track. I'd be nice ta see ya stop blame'n yerself after all these years. Yer a good bloke Fayte, there ain't another person that'd take these sheilas off the streets the way you did…that's why I trust you mate," He said standing up, "well, I'm in room fourteen thirty four at the Mallrose on upside. Take yer time…I'll be there till tomorrow afternoon," He said placing his hat on his head as he opened the door to the building, "you sheilas have a wonderful day. By the way ol' boy, you might wanna take a closer look at those there files, look close enough, you'll see why I'm here."

After the reptile left the building, the ladies returned to work, just in time for things to pick up. Despite having been left to their business afterward, Fayte seemed to be almost obsessed with the files and paperwork that Sydney had left him with. It eventually became so bad in fact, that the fox was forced to retreat to a special table he kept off by itself for either himself or the ladies to have their lunch. Hours and hours went by and still he seemed to never turn his eyes away from the pages stored in the small file that the reptile had left with him. Sasha seemed slightly more aware than the others that something Sydney had said clearly upset their loving boss. Something about Fayte's single mindedness toward the files eventually led to him spreading the different pictures and pages out in front of him while he went over the contract and it's reasoning. Even long after the bar grew empty and the streets grew cold and dark once again, he still seemed to sit by reading over them all. He took his time out from his situation to bid the girls farewell and good night, replying that nothing was wrong to any of them that bothered to ask why he was so silent and obsessed with the file the large reptile had left with him. It was however, some point during the night that the bar's new tenant sat across from him sipping at a small cup of coffee of all things…

"Fayte…" Sasha called to him, "…what's the matter? You've been so quiet ever since that Argon came through the door."

Fatye sat back with a heavy sigh, "Sydney and I go back a ways. I met him about six or so years ago. He seemed to like the way I worked, I guess he's always kept an eye on me. He's a good guy, he's just really serious about his work. He's a tracker, retrieval expert, and a few other things outside of being a high priced Merc," He said laying the page in his hand onto the table, "looks like he's hoping I can make sense of all these random hits that this Ghost has made."

"Have you?" Sasha asked.

Fayte nodded, "Yeah…" He said, "…so far it looks like Ghost has gone after several senators, killed a good number of Bounty Hunters, and just recently…he killed the CEO of Arspace Dynamics."

Sasha thought for a moment, "Did that mean something special to you?"

Fayte shook his head, "Not really no. I don't really have anyone special to me, not anymore. It's just you four now," He smiled, "you girls are all I need. Most guys want all the perks of a relationship, but, I've played that game before and I lost…better that I just take what I have. If I can help Sydney do this job there's thirty billion credits in it for me. That means I can give the four of you the life I've always thought I have been. I'm not sure why but, I'd pay any price to see you four in happy homes; with nice, loving guys to keep you company and give you the things that I can't."

"Fayte…" The lapin paused rimming her drink with her finger while staring into the cup, "…what exactly did you do before you took over this bar?"

The vulpine shook his head before tapping the black leather patch over his left eye, "Doesn't the eyepatch give it away…" He chuckled, "…merc, not a very good one either. My old finance tried to get me to stop…if I'd have listened to her she'd still be here; but, try all you want you can't bring the lost back. After she was gone I was…" He chuckled, "…distraught, I guess you'd say. I tried to kill myself twice; gun misfired, nearly blew my hand off…second time I hung myself. When I thought that was gonna work, old friend of mine stumbled onto me while I was hanging there and cut me down. They never sent me to a psych ward though…"

Sasha gasped, "Why? Did they want you to kill yourself?"

Fayte laughed shaking his head, "No…see when I was hanging there, for about three minutes I was actually dead. I saw everything; the light, the tunnel, the other side…" He sighed, "…everything but her and my family. When I came to, they said I had no signs of mental trauma. They had me spend time with a therapist, even a hypnotist; all we learned is that nearly killing myself was all I needed to take her off my mind. After that I fell in with a few…less than reputable people, that led me to being chased down by Sydney. When he caught me, it turned out that he and I had a lot in common. I helped him bring down the men I was working with…he and I got together and did a few jobs. After a little while I came across this place. Seemed like a good way to pull myself away from the public eye so…here we are."

Sasha smiled with a clear realization, "So this Ghost guy is one of the people that you worked with?"

Fayte laughed, "No. Back then I kept myself working only with people who didn't know their own ass from a hole in the ground. Makes it easier to get away from them when you have to."

"Then what sense did you make of the hits?" Sasha asked.

Fayte sighed, "The fact that they aren't random at all. He's reenacting history."

"What history?" The cream furry lapin asked.

Fayte chuckled, 'That would be the question to ask now wouldn't it?" He said, "Look it'd be a good idea for you to get some sleep, don't need you getting all groggy on the job tomorrow."

Fayte watched the young female travel upstairs, the light smile on his face as she turned around completely hid the fact that he wouldn't be there when she woke up. She was responsible enough to leave in charge while he was away; he was certain the job wouldn't take too long. He'd leave everything she could possibly need with the note he intended to leave for her on the bar counter. Sydney got his way, just like he always did…

**August 7****th**

**0900hrs**

**Papetoon**

Dravyn knelt with a single knee grinding into the spine of the dark gray furred coyote that they'd been tracking; he was easy enough to get out into the open given the incentive of a certain Mink walking through the park in her spandex training suit. Most of the time she only wore the suite for training, or when she was attempting to get Creed's mind off of something. Seemed that Creed's initial idea of using Mika to lure him out of his tower had proven a bit easier than they'd originally planned, as soon as Reiko has seen her sit and begin to massage a sore ankle, he was out of the tower and on the ground faster than they could even realize he was talking to her. It wasn't long after loading Reiko onto Dravyn's small ship that he agreed to meeting Creed and Mika aboard their own ship. It was there that Reiko was brought out for questioning; it actually turned out that Reiko was once a member of the Cornerian military, and though his targets did all seem to be political figures or important people of varying sorts, his conduct seemed to be of a personal nature much like Dravyn had explained it. The young coyote turned out to be an Anti-personnel sniper for a Viper Unit before he ran off according to the military records. However, the truth was that he was simply tired of sweeping the Council's dirty work under the rug and decided to leave the military behind. After that his live became one big game of hide-n-seek. He went on to explain that had he simply been left alone, and been allowed to marry the Zonessian he'd fallen in love with, he would never have created such an elaborate hit list. He seemed rather quick to jump on Dravyn's offer, apparently he'd heard of Black Star before…

Reiko was a slightly tall animal of a fair build, though he did possess a rather frequent habit of smoking, his short hair was slightly darker than his fur, and his brown eyes seemed heavy with thought most of the time. After hearing what he'd been through Mika found herself filled with a mixture of disgust for the Council, and sorry for what Reiko had been through. Unfortunately, even though Reiko clearly knew of Mika and Creed's situation, he seemed to have no idea what it meant to keep his hands to himself…

It seemed like forever went by before meeting in the large ship's galley, Reiko seemed a bit upset, then again it was, as he claimed, the first time he'd ever suffered a black eye from a female…Mika found it a bit difficult to believe. He had trouble keeping his hands to himself, and all the young Mink could say about his eye, was that he was simply lucky it was her fist and not Creed's. Dravyn seemed to find it rather amusing himself…

"So…" Creed said chuckling lightly at Reiko as he sat next to Mika, "…where are we headed now or do we even know?"

Dravyn sighed with a light nod as he looked to Reiko, "Sometimes you tend to hear things. I can't explain why but, the first time I heard Ghost's name mentioned by another person. It was from a senator that I killed about two months back. Stale wind altered my trajectory, had enough time to beg the Enforcers to get his wife and kids somewhere safe. Apparently he knew what was going to happen before it started to happen. Something about Project Chronos…whatever the fuck that is…didn't really care."

Mika scratched her head for a moment, "Cronos?"

Dravyn nodded, "Human term. Some sort of ancient race of giants on Earth. According to the texts that we have on human history, these giants lived several millennia before Earth's biosphere collapsed on top of itself."

"Why name any type of Project after something from Earth then?" Mika asked.

Dravyn shrugged his shoulders, "Beats me, but, these giants were supposedly pretty damn important. Some human societies believed they created their planet, so chances are this Project Cronos is a secret for a reason. Maybe Ghost has something to do with it all."

Reiko chuckled, "Is this all why you've asked me to come to Black Star?"

Dravyn shook his head, "No…there's a very good reason we need you with Black Star. From what I've heard you are an expert tracker, I have another on his way right now to assist us. We are meant to meet him on Corneria."

Reiko laughed, "What exactly do you think we can do against someone that can amass an army in such a short time?" He asked, "a few months ago the Ghost was nothing but a rumor, and now he's an Accord-wide menace threatening to rip the Accord apart because frankly…he knows the corporate morons that lead this Accord better than they know themselves."

Creed froze, "Wait say that again?"

"Corporate morons?" Reiko asked.

"No after that…"

Reiko thought for a moment, "He knows them better than they know themselves?"

"Son of a bitch…" Creed gasped, "…Reiko you may be the most brilliant idiot I've ever met," He said looking to Dravyn, "what do we all know so far about the Ghost's attacks so far?"

Dravyn sighed, "Next to nothing, that is the problem."

Creed shook his head, "No…" He said, "…I questioned it before but, I figured it was just my mind working too much; but, check this out. Fara was only scheduled to be on Katina for two days…but, her plans got held up and she ended up staying an extra day in order to get her affairs in order before going home to Corneria. Somehow he knew that she was there when anybody that did their job professionally like Reiko here would have done what?"

Reiko nodded, "I'd have been waiting across the street of the hanger she was going to land in Corneria City. One silenced gunshot through the window of her limo and nobody's the wiser until she gets back out again. When things are held up like that with corporate big wigs like Phoenix, you don't really get wind of the change in schedule till it's a little too late."

Dravyn smiled, "Reiko you've already been a bigger help than I could have hoped for," He said walking out of the room, "even without realizing it you just gave us the biggest lead this case has had in months."

"What lead?" Reiko asked as he watched the black fox leave the room.

Creed chuckled as he allowed Mika to head out the door in front of him, "Whoever Ghost is, knew Fara personally."

As the group all headed out to do their own amount of investigating on the subject, the ship sped off toward Corneria city. It seemed like everything was leading them to Ghost, wherever he was. Soon enough they'd have enough information to track him down on their own…if however, the tracker that Dravyn had hired didn't show up and lead them to Ghost anyhow. Regardless of the situation there was little at the time that could be done short of going through the steps of tracking the former CEO's last transmissions from her personal communicator, and the terminal in her office on Katina…

**August 7****th**

**1100hrs**

**Fichina Environmental Control Center**

Wolf couldn't believe the amount of destroyed wiring and shorted terminals, the amount of damage done was, at first glance, repairable, but, after several hours of attempting to repair the system…he found himself burning some random files and papers to keep warm. Whatever his methods of repairing the place, they had all failed, not only were most of the instruments hacked through with some sort of radically sharp blade, whatever power grid had kept the center's systems running was also sabotaged. Minutes seemed like hours, his fingers and toes were going numb…first signs of hypothermia. Loosing an eye was bad, but, the young wolf wasn't really ready for the premise of loosing a limb to go along with it. Wolf couldn't help but keep his mind on Krystal and Panther, thanks to her upbringing and the supposed environments of her home world, he did not doubt that Krystal could handle herself and survive in such extreme conditions but. Panther was a patsy when it came to things like this…a complete pre-Madonna. His meals had to be a certain way, his drinks had to be a certain brand, and even the temperature in his quarters never went above or below a certain degree, most likely why Krystal kept her room constantly cold. Though he couldn't help it, Wolf found his mind constantly rushing back to the strange person he'd met outside; he didn't seem to be effected by the cold at all…in fact, he wasn't very well dressed either. No normal animal could have been dressed so without freezing to death in mere moments. It was clearly that cloaked stranger that did all the damage he saw before him in the Center, him and that strange sword he was carrying…

"Bastard…" Wolf said ripping a large stack of papers from the building before tossing them on his small fire, "…why the fuck didn't he say anything about this place? And why did he do all of this in the first place? Fucker made my skin crawl."

Wolf suddenly felt something, like a cold chill in a single spot on his back, the familiar feeling of someone watching him. Quickly turning about, the wolf found a familiar hooded white figure standing at the entrance of the building, the very same figure still clutching at his sword. This time the animal didn't say a word, instead the figure simply stared at him before looking back into the snowy fields. Curious about what was going on Wolf quickly leaped to his feet before rushing off to where the stranger stood…

"More friends of yours?" The cloaked man asked looking to a pair of ships burning through the atmosphere.

Wolf shook his head, "We never had the chance to send out a beacon. We came down pretty hard…I wasn't expecting the Control Center here to be out of commission. Froze up most of our instruments."

The stranger sighed, "I must apologize…" He said, "…the mess inside was my own doing."

"I sort of figured that."

The stranger nodded, "I can assure you that I did not mean, in any way, to bring harm to you or your crew. It was a…judgment error." Wolf nodded as the stranger said this, keeping his eyes on the ships that screamed toward the surface of the planet, "they are scout ships for a gang calling themselves that Lancers. They are salvage collectors, they break down abandoned ships and sell the parts for scrap. They are rather desperate at the moment, and have come looking for the wreckage of your fighters so that they may collect that much more money for the haul."

"So you're telling me that the whole time we've been down here, we've been chasing you while Ghost is out there possibly fucking everything over?" Wolf asked, "and now on top of that I have to deal with galactic Dumpster divers after my ships?"

The stranger sighed, "I suppose it does sound rather grim when you say it like that."

Wolf shook his head, "Who exactly are you again?"

The cloaked figure chuckled heartily, "I suppose these days all I can be considered is a Remnant."

"Remnant?" Wolf asked, "remnant of what?"

The stranger scoffed, "Exactly. For now I suppose just Remnant will do."

"You don't know your real name do you?"

The stranger began to walk off leaving Wolf only to follow behind him, "A name can never be who or what we are. That would be about the same as calling a rose a rock. Even with another name, would the rose smell any different? If I started calling you Susan would you act any differently than now?"

Wolf narrowed his eyes at Remnant, "Okay, I get your point but, where are you going?"

"You need to find your friends," Remnant replied, "I would feel very horrible if you were to loose them on my account."

Wolf wasn't sure why but, he was certain that if he followed this person, he could find Krystal and Panther, if they were still alive. He knew where he was going, or at least it seemed that way as Remnant trudged through the snow seemingly without direction. The temperatures seemed to bite even into Wolf's bones as he traveled along, it wouldn't be too much longer before his Personal Climate Device would need to be recharged. He was certain that Krystal and Panthers' would be the same way by now, or at least he was certain they would. For some reason, Wolf's mind kept slipping back to his old life in that place, back to what it was like before he had formed Star Wolf to begin with. He wasn't certain why his old life even had any validity anymore; or course he thought of all the people that he'd lost back then, and of all the people he loved and even the ones that had abandoned him after the Lylat System began to label him as a sadistic criminal. He often wondered about where everything was headed with this Ghost situation, and why it was Leon had not returned from his own job yet…being the only friend from his former life, Wolf began to wonder whether or not Leon had already been tracked down, or hired on by someone with deeper pockets. Of course he cared for Leon after all the time they'd known one another, but, he knew the reptile well, and he knew that Leon had a love for money, as well as a love for his old job as an assassin…the two had a direct understanding about killing one another if the time ever came along…

It was as the two of them walked that Remnant suddenly stopped and turned his nose to the air; Wolf wondered what sort of creature was under the hood. The voice struck him as hauntingly familiar but, at the same time he simply couldn't place it. It was only a short time after Remnant stopped that he pulled a strange looking object from beneath his long coat. At the time it looked like no more than a folded up mass of twisted metal and wire; however, a flick of his wrist caused the strange thing to unfurl into a strange looking weapon with three long wires suspended between two arches held in place by pulleys. Wolf lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, bows had not been around for ages, and even the V-tech bows made by Vector Industries were not all that popular with the larger energy or archaic weapons used by most mercs and military personnel. However, regardless of the facts. Remnant produced from his sleeve, what appeared to be a silver arrow. Without word Remnant looked to the sky, setting his sights along the arrow while pulling it's feathered end back against the wires until the very end of the feathers came within reach of his face. It only seemed to take him a moment before he fired that arrow into a massive arch that trailed off into the snowy sheet that hindered his vision completely…

It had taken Panther more time than the young vixen thought it might in order to get himself together again. Then again it seemed like Krystal was recovering from something herself; all the exertion on top of trying her hardest to keep Panther from meeting his maker had drained her completely. As she lay there, Krystal suddenly cut her eyes at Panther, who, oddly enough simply lay there; she still didn't trust him no matter the situation but, something was different about his behavior as he looked out of the cavern, into the thick snow. His mind was not swimming with a single thought at the moment, rather his only intention at the moment seemed to be standing guard while she rested. Despite the black eye he'd received when he woke up, due to his lewd behavior, the feline seemed set in his motive of keeping any trespasser out of the cavern while she gathered her strength. It seemed like a decent length of time passed before the blue vixen's eyes fluttered open, causing her to recoil at the sight of Panther's face hanging just over her own…

"Shhhh…." He hissed placing a hand over her mouth, "…Panther saw people outside. Four. They are armed."

The vixen moved Panther's hand from her face before closing her eyes for a moment to help her focus, "I can read them. They're here for our ships, they are looking for the pilots so they can get the access codes for the Great Wolf."

Panther nodded handing the vixen her spear, "Who are they?"

Krystal shook her head, "Scrappers. They're just looking to break down the Great Wolf so they can sell it piece by piece.

"Can you stand?" The black cat asked.

Krystal nodded, stretching her neck as she stood up, "I will be fine Panther, thank you. Keeping the flame going on my staff simply drained me dry. Rest was all I needed. Stay here. If I need help you will know it…" She said growling lightly, "…I have had just about enough of this planet, and they are standing between me, and my bed back on the Great Wolf."

Before he could voice his distaste for the action, the vixen quickly disappeared into the snow. Panther was actually amazed at how well her light blue fur merged with the snowy landscape causing her to seemingly vanish before his very eyes. Panther knew better than anyone what it was like to get on the Cerinian warrior's bad side. Clearly she was cranky due to the current situation. Panther had actually bothered to ask why she was so gifted when it came to using her hands as well as the staff she carried in combat, only to be told of the females of her people being trained in the deadly arts from a very young age. He was not particularly worried about the vixen herself, as he was the state of anger she was in at the moment; people tended to make mistakes when angry, and the femme fatal was no exception, at the moment he was simply glad that she was not angry at him.

The vixen made her way through the snow a ways, making her footsteps very light…in fact had there been another animal within five feet of her, chances are they would never have heard her coming. It was after she had traveled a fair distance that she turned about and began to use her telepathy to scan the area. There were four thought patterns nearby besides of course Panther; two were at the far end of the foothill where the cavern was, near the back entrance had there ever been one. Another was taking his time inspecting another section of the area several hundred yards away to the west, while the last was actually approaching the cavern's entrance. He had not heard anything, and was only inspecting the cavern but, this was enough to put the vixen on alert. Were gunshots to ring out, the other three would come running, however, the vixen managed to make her way up onto the top of the ridge that hung out over the entrance of the cavern like a small awning. In a situation where visibility was nearly zero, a Cerinian warrior was the worst possible thing to deal with. Being they could sense your presence by your thoughts alone, they could pinpoint a single person in the middle of a blizzard by following their thought pattern through the environment. Seeing the environment in her own mind, Krystal peeked over the ledge of the ridge. They were wearing thermal specs, which meant that if this person decided to look in her direction, she'd have been spotted. However, a very light whistle caused the strange animal to look up, allowing the blade of a spear to quickly burst from the back of his upturned skull. The precision strike was thrown with accuracy and quickness, causing the person's body to break into a fit of shakes as it crashed to the snowy ground.

Not in the mood to play things safe, Krystal turned her attention to the other two animals around the back of the hill. With a running start Krystal launched herself from the downward slope that led down their side of the hill, and upon her decent, one of the heavily covered individuals looked to a sound of cloth and fur flapping in the wind, only to feel a light sting as he froze in place. Having not seen or heard any of what had happened, the still walking animal turned to see his friend staring forward, and approached him. Several times he checked the frozen man's reactions, before finally tapping his chest with the barrel of the assault rifle he carried. The light force was all it took for the animal to fall back, causing his severed head to roll away from his body. Startled, the living man whipped his weapon about only to feel it tear from his hands. He called out, only to find his voice echoing, and rushed forward only to strike what felt like a solid wall. On another glance the man now saw a sapphire vixen seemingly appearing from the snow with the fingers of her right hand spread as if she were preparing to make a fist. As he watched her fingers begin to curl into her palm, the man felt the same force that had stopped him from running force him to his knees while forcing his arms to his sides. The force built up until his muzzle finally folded into his face, his arms snapped and contorted and his body was forced further down into itself. After a moment, there remained nothing but a oval shaped, floating figure of blood. Releasing her hold, the oval burst spilling a hideous mess of blood and a horrible mangled body to the ground that would never again be recognizable. She hadn't realized how irritated this whole situation had made her until she felt the barrel of a rifle press into the back of her head. How had she been so careless as to take her mind off of a target? In her mind she could already hear the gunshot, already feel the red hot projectile tear into her skull. However, as she stood there, readying herself for the ending shot that she heard the animal behind her grunt as his weapon veered off releasing a deafening gunshot that caused the vixen to grip the side of her face, and quickly turn driving her spear into her attacker's gut, only to realize that his dying nerves were all that were holding him up. A long, silver object protruded from the animal's face, just under his nose, the head of the arrow had exited through the top of his jaw. It was as she ripped her spear free, allowing the animal to fall to the snow that her mind felt something familiar…

Krystal quickly shot about, "WOLF!" She called.

"Krystal!" The lupine's voice called back from the distance, as his form finally broke into view, "Are you alright?" He asked moving her hand from her face.

Krystal shook her head pushing his hand away, "This is nothing…" She said, "…it was amazing. I lost my focus, and this one snuck up on me," She said pointing to the animal who's skull still housed a familiar silver arrow, "when the arrow hit him, he fired but, it only grazed my cheek. Where did the arrow come from? Did you do this?"

Wolf narrowed his eyes at the dead animal, "Remnant are you…" He said turning as he realized there was nobody behind him, "…even living?" He finished, "I don't say this often but that is one creepy mother fucker."

Krystal put her weapon away, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Wolf held up a hand as he shook his head, "Don't bother…too hard to fucking explain. Let's just get the Great Wolf down here, get our ships, and get the fuck outta here. I'll be happy to see this place from a few hundred miles above the surface."

The three were in a massive hurry to get back to their flagship, after getting back aboard the Great Wolf, Krystal made her way immediately to her room. She was certain that the others hadn't noticed yet, but, as she stood there allowing the hot waters of her shower to wash away the frost in her bones. It was part of the reason why she'd been so angry back in the cavern where she had taken care of Panther. She was glad that he had not noticed then, or the feline would have never given her a moment to herself. The cramps had to be the worst part of it all; though her insides were frozen they felt as though they were on fire. Despite how tired she was, there was no way she'd ever get any sleep for the night. Not bothering to get dressed on her way to her bed, the vixen slid into the soft silk sheets before nuzzling her head into her favorite pillow. Even if she would go without sleep there was no way she was leaving her bed…

Unbeknownst to the suffering vixen, a familiar, incredibly pleasant and sweet smell brought Panther through the halls with his nose in the air before he found himself standing outside the vixen's door. However, as he stood there Caruso felt a strong, incredibly forceful hand jerk him back by the nape of his neck, driving his back into the wall across the hall from Krystal's room. Most of the time, when Wolf could not find Caruso, he knew to check Krystal's room, especially now after catching a feint scent from her as Krystal jumped from her ship…

"Caruso," Wolf half yelled holding the feline against the wall by his throat, "do I need to remind you what happened the last time you bothered her when she was in heat like this?"

Panther pulled away the lupine's hand, "Panther is not here for that…Captain."

Wolf narrowed his eyes at the disfunctional feline, "Listen close. She had every intention of killing you last time, this time I won't pull her off. I'll fucking watch. Understand?" He asked causing Caruso to nod lightly, "Whether or not you choose to believe it…you can be replaced Panther…and all this harassment is starting to piss me off. I've been meaning to tell you off for a while now…so consider this your last warning before you become unemployed."

"Panther understands," Caruso replied, "but, again…that is not why Panther is here," He said looking to her room, "she could have left Panther to die, she had no reason to save Panther. All Panther has done is make her life here difficult. Panther has to pay her back, Panther owes her his life."

Wolf sighed, "Trust me, she'd be happy enough if you just left her alone. I'd give anything to have you feel what she's going through right now."

"Wolf…" Panther said as they began to head back through the halls, "…Krystal. She still loves that McCloud fool…doesn't she?"

Wolf nodded with a heavy sigh, "Yeah. I think it's part of why she keeps being so harsh on you," He replied, "you know other than the fact that you're a persistent bastard that doesn't know when no means no."

There was a pause for a moment, "I…do not believe McCloud is dead," Panther said suddenly, "the prospect is too…promising…"

Wolf cut his eyes at the panther, "Explain."

"McCloud disappears," Panther said, "not long after Ghost begins to attack Lylat. It is as if Ghost was waiting, possibly even pulling strings in order to make McCloud feel unwanted so that he would abandon Lylat. McCloud is very crafty, and very strong too boot. Panther simply refuses to believe that a stranger could appear and accomplish in a matter of days what Star Wolf could not accomplish in decades. It simply does not seem probable, not to mention, Ghost's attacks are far too precise to be made on the spur of a moment…no his plans are those of a man that has been planning for years."

Wolf nodded, "I've noticed that too," He said, "it seems like Ghost was just waiting for McCloud to leave. I just have one question that I want answered," He said stopping and looking to Panther shrugging his shoulders, "Why just wait for McCloud alone to leave? He's just one person, Star Fox was a threat, but, alone McCloud is just another high profile merc with an impressive track record."

"Perhaps you are overlooking the bigger picture…" A voice suddenly caused Wolf to whip his blaster toward the shadows where a familiar cloaked figure rested against the wall of the hallway.

Wolf narrowed his eyes with a low, threatening growl, "How did you get on this ship?"

"Stowed away…" Remnant replied with a light chuckle, "…I was a bit hesitant to, bother you for a lift. You seemed a bit miffed with me earlier. So I decided that I would do so when you could no longer refuse."

Wolf put away his weapon and looked to Panther who's mouth simply hung open while his pointed to the stranger, keeping his eyes to Wolf as if he were looking for words, "Don't ask…" He said walking on causing the cloaked figure to follow behind him, "…what exactly were you talking about anyhow?"

Remnant chuckled, "Did you perhaps figure that Ghost simply did not want McCloud caught in the crossfire?"

Wolf scoffed heartily, "Why the fuck would he do that?"

Remnant smiled as Wolf turned around…

"Holy shit…" Wolf said scratching at his eyepiece, "…he knows McCloud personally. So personally that he didn't want McCloud getting caught in the middle of it all," He said, "come on. I'm gonna make a call to Leon. Maybe he's found something by now, with this information maybe he can dig some more stuff up."

Reaching Leon through the ship's communicators took a bit longer than Wolf was used to, and when the image did finally show him the reptile's face. He looked like he'd seen the bad side of an explosion or two, and there was a large gash in his forehead that seemed to disrupt the vision in his right eye. The reptile chuckled…

"I believe some explanations are in order."

Wolf lightly nodded as he sat down, "What the fuck happened to you?"

Leon sighed, "There was an attack on the base here on Corneria. I figured I'd get what information I could before we met up here…" He said, "…you wouldn't believe what I found before the attack."

Wolf sighed, "Try me."

"Well, it would appear that the Council has been sweeping Ghost's little incursions under the rug for years. Thing is up until now it's all been petty little things, lower even than the attacks the Hot Rodders were known for. That wasn't the strange thing though, and that's not why the Council is covering this all up."

Panther rose an eyebrow at the reptile, "Why cover it up to begin with?"

Leon nodded, "That was what I wanted to know before I found this healthy little piece of information. See a Black Ops agent known as Dravyn Dark stumbled onto a crime in progress and acted on it like any military personnel would. This Dravyn guy fought him off but, was eventually forced to kill the guy. The body was positively several days later by a survivor of one of his attacks."

Wolf shook his head, "Ghost…"

"Yes," Leon replied, "the body was him…but, not even a full year later…the body came up missing from the morgue and the attacks started all over again, and they suddenly escalated. Instead of these petty attack, he started attacking with the intent of killing, and then he stole that piece of tech from Vector…by the by Wolf I dug up that information that Verne was hiding from you…it's not good. Is Krystal with you?" He asked looking to the white robed figure to Wolf's left, "Who the hell is that?"

"Remnant will do," The stranger bowed slightly, "I am of no consequence simply a tag along as far as Corneria. If I am impeding I could simply go."

Leon eyed the strange animal for a moment before Wolf shook his head, "Don't bother just gimme what'cha got Leon."

Powalski sighed, "I dug something up that looked important after the attack. The systems went down due to a power outage so that was kinda helpful in getting what I was after. I caught wind of something called the Blue Blood Project. See when Krystal was first introduced into Star Fox, Slippy Toad took a few blood samples to check her for any diseases or deficiencies that could have hindered her combat readiness in any way. Wanna guess what they found when some of the Council's big wigs got their hands on the DNA samples?"

Wolf rested his head on his fist, "I'm guessing something bad?"

Leon shook his head, "Nothing," He replied, "no bacteria, no infections, not even a trace of past sicknesses or injuries. Take a normal person like yourself Wolf, the fibrin in your blood rushes to the source of an injury, while your white blood cells attack infecting hosts. She has no white blood cells, instead, her white blood cells are actually dark blue cells. The introduced a sample of every disease known to Lylatian Science to her blood samples, apparently Cerinians heal on a sub-atomic level, those cells absorb energy from things like infections and viruses and process them through her body just like any other thing that the body digests, it's just absorbed into the body. She can never get sick, not to mention they've been studying her body's natural healing process; the fibrin in her blood works on a rate more that ten times what ours does. What naturally takes you or me a week to heal only takes her about half a day to heal."

Wolf nodded, "We all know Krystal's different…hell that's part of what makes her such an asset to the team."

Leon shook his head, "They've been studying her DNA with advanced genetics. They think she may be the key to the fountain of youth or something like that."

"Okay an that's a bad thing how?" Wolf asked.

"Their experiments with the subject created Dravyn Dark…he's a Pyrokinetic now. Apparently the process has a few…setbacks."

Wolf nodded, "Okay that's better but, does this have anything to do with what Ghost is after?"

Leon nodded, "Yes…see. The first successful experiment used a nan-mod to integrate the process, but, the mod was too powerful, kept overthrowing the body's immune system killing the host. That's why they created the Restrictor System that was stolen from Vector. Verne didn't want to tell you because it involved technology that's been illegal since we discovered it. Human Tech is strictly outlawed."

Wolf sighed, "Verne you son of a bitch," He said, "I'll call him and hit him for the information. If Ghost used that set up on himself, then we're talking about fighting someone that could possibly be stronger than any number of us. Just keep your nose to the wind and we'll be there in a few hours," He said as Leon seemed to move away from his own communicator, "and Leon…" Wolf called, "…good work."

Though there was nothing said between himself and Panther, Wolf now knew the depth of the situation and just what it meant to fight Ghost. It meant fighting someone that Krystal had already proved had at the very least one of her gifts, but, to know that a Mod was making him stronger and more like a Cerinian than a Lylatian was something that none of them were prepared for. Krystal had displayed a thousand times over that her people were naturally gifted warriors, if the Mod gave Ghost a clear train of Cerinian thought, then they were now dealing with someone that was simply better than all of them. One thing however stuck to the forefront of Wolf's mind. It was clear that Ghost had been planning this for some time; if that was the very least of it all, how then did he know about the Restrictor System and the Mod?


	6. Episode 5

**~Episode 5~**

_There is no death, only a change of worlds – Duwamish Proverb_

"So what's our first step?" Panther asked, "Panther does not think that Ghost is simply going to answer questions for us."

Wolf shook his head, "No. Whoever he is, Ghost has some sort of connection with Vector Industries…" He said waiting for the subspace link displayed on the screen in front of him to go through, "…worse yet. I think he's got a vendetta against the council."

After a short while a hologram of a familiar wolf was displayed before him, "Wolf? Tell me you have good news. You haven't contacted us in some time, I was beginning to worry that something terrible had happened."

Wolf sighed angrily, "Human technology? Really? You have any kind of clue what could happen to everyone in that building if the Council were to find out?"

Verne clearly moved away from the monitor on his end, locking the door to the office he stood in, "It's not what you think Wolf."

"Spare me the lecture…" Wolf demanded, "…you really think I didn't send Leon to check every source he could find once this stopped making any sense."

Verne sighed, "Listen Wolf. I would have told you everything, but, the contract that we have for that restrictor and mod…" He paused, "…let me just say that it wouldn't do you a bit of good to turn in the information to the people paying us to make it."

Wolf shook his head, "What does the Blue Blood have to do with that mod? And, don't tell me it's nothing because I'm not that stupid."

Verne sat down as his shaking hands poured a small glass of dark scotch before taking a hard drink…

"When…" Verne sighed as he tried to calm himself, "…when they brought me the Blue Blood Cells…I was forced to work with Professor Beltino and a few other associates of mine in order to extract and study the chromosomes that the DNA was composed of. What we found inside was nothing short of astounding. Everything we ever wanted to know about evolution was contained within that one tiny blood sample. It was amazing…" He flashed his brother a nervous smile, "…and the most frightening thing I'd ever seen. At the source of that genetic code, there are not thirty two pairs of chromosomes, instead there are th-th-thirty s-six. One pair of the chromosomes heighten senses, smell, sight, hearing…no real increase in anything physically dominating…"

With that Verne seemed to trail off, "Verne!" Wolf suddenly called causing his brother to jump to attention, "What about the second pair?"

"Do you remember when we were both studying biology? That study that you and me did on the mind," Verne asked receiving a nod in response, "I believe your first line in that study was. What if we could bridge the gap between the conscious and subconscious mind? The answer is…" He paused for a moment, "…you would get someone that looked like this…" He said holding up a small photo of Krystal, "…her mental capacity will reach full maturity in another ten to fifteen years. The abilities that she already shows, will increase roughly ten fold. You see…her people were once like us; but, something in their genetic structure changed…they evolved…however, unlike most stages of evolution…for some reason this time it left behind a footprint. Those two chromosomes that we found…they're recombinant…sort of like genetic super glue."

Wolf's eyes widened, "I was hoping that was just bullshit. You're not about to tell me this Black Star thing is true."

Verne nodded lightly, "The original set of subjects for Black Star were hand selected; special ops, no immediate family, no significant others…nothing. There were several of them; a young fox named Dravyn, a vixen named Rosaline, an avian named Raven, and a young lizard named Drake. Their abilities manifested within days of the initial infusion of what we called C-cell. Dravyn became able to manifest and control fire. Rosaline could place thoughts directly into your mind through touch…telehypnosis is the term I believe, and Drake could control the moisture in the air, most often forming ice. However, that was where the natural abilities stopped. Raven…his ability broke physical law, we were, through scientific theory able to formulate how the other three abilities worked…but, Raven…he could manipulate and control shadows, at times even giving them physical mass. When I went to the council with my complaints that this whole thing was going too far…they bumped me down to working on a slightly more synthetic solution to the problem. They wanted the abilities, and the increased learning capacity, but, no more random mutations causing unusual abilities…they feared that the next mutation would cause behavioral problems."

Wolf nodded, "So they had you create a synthetic clone of the gene," He said, "and the restrictor system to keep it from evolving out of control like this Raven guy." He pointed out.

Verne nodded, "Yes."

"Listen, think hard…" Wolf said, "…what would Ghost want with a Nan-mod filled with a synthetic gene?"

Verne shook his head as he shrugged his shoulders, "I wish I knew. He cannot mass produce it. Without the restrictor, that mod is programmed to kill. It was a defensive mechanism that I was forced to install; if the Nanites in the mod do not receive constant impulses from the restrictor, they will all rush to the heart, clot the arteries and kill the subject in order to keep any further mutations from happening."

Verne's gaze suddenly left Wolf's eyes, looking out over his brother's shoulder to the entrance of the bridge where a sapphire furred vixen stood with her hand over her mouth with a stream of tears falling from her eyes. She couldn't believe her ears, everyone she'd trusted; Slippy, Beltino, even Fox. They had all convinced her to give the blood samples that were being mentioned, claiming that they were for some sort of health examination. It was as he noticed her stepping slowly back away from the door that Wolf leaped from his seat rushing to her…

"Krystal wait!" He called as he placed a hand on her shoulder as she turned to run.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

The vixen turned screaming in a mixture of horror and realization. The hand that she planted against the wolf's chest shot him across the bridge where his back collided with the seat he'd been sitting in, the sudden stop causing his shoulder to separate as the seat gave way causing his body to flip through the air where he landed on his back with a painful thud. As she looked to Panther, and the cloaked animal in white, who was kneeling, doubled over in pain. Krystal rushed out of the bridge and through the halls…

"Don't just stand there!" Wolf called to the feline who still stood there in shock, "Stop her! She doesn't know what she's doing."

Rushing through the halls, Panther realized just how athletic the vixen was as her speeding legs carried her through the ship from one end to the other. It wasn't until she had already boarded her Wolfen that Panther rushed into the room. Unfortunately, as their eyes met, the cockpit of the vixen's fighter slid shut, and she very quickly shot from the docking bay in a radically reckless manner. He did not bother chasing after her because he was certain that even should he leave the docking bay, by the time he would have managed to talk some sense into her…the vixen and her ship would have already been gone. Still not fully certain of what was going on, Panther rushed off back to the bridge where he found Wolf, who had barely managed to pull himself back into his seat, still doubled over in agony. His ribs had been shattered by his impact with the chair, and his spine bruised by his collision with the floor thereafter. Wolf already realized there was nothing he could do, Krystal's ship was no longer in range of the Great Wolf's scanners, they were still no closer to finding Ghost, and now…the team was short one Cerinian. Possibly the only means they had of stopping Ghost…

"Panther…get us to…" Wolf paused for a moment, "…Corneria…we can track Krystal from there. Once I'm patched up…we'll go find her."

After setting up the ship's autopilot, Panther shouldered Wolf's weight and helped him down the halls to his room. After several scans with the medical equipment that Panther was skilled enough to use, he found no internal bleeding. All they were able to do, was to give Wolf whatever pain killers they could and let him rest until they reached Corneria…

**August 8****th**

**0100hrs**

**Thorntail Hollow**

A medium sized cruiser lay birthed in the hollow, while a slightly irritated; massive reptile sat upon a large rock on the side of a clear stream, enjoying the Dumbledang Pod he'd been chewing on for the last few minutes. Off in the distance, a young chestnut furred fox spoke with a short, strange looking reptile, the likes of which Sydney had never seen…dressed in a odd gown. Why Fayte had decided to stop in such a place was odd enough, but, oddly enough after the fox handed the levitating hag something, he headed back toward Sydney…

"Hexx says she's had business from a guy in white," He said tossing another of the large nuts to Sydney, "he was apparently looking for something. Didn't say what, just that some blue vixen had it."

Sydney nodded, "Oi! Ain't there…" He thought for a moment, "…that sheila with McCloud. Only blue vixen I ever 'eard of."

Fayte thought for a moment, "Wait a minute you're right," He chuckled, "why the fuck didn't I think about that? Where do you think we should start looking…Corneria?"

"Nah…" Sydney replied shaking his head, "…all them insults an' whatnot them blokes was toss'n her way. Last I 'eard she was run'n wit O'Donnell's lot."

"Great…" Fayte replied, "…the elusive rouge turned hero himself. How the hell we supposed to find him?"

"Well, he ain't hulled up in Sargasso no more," Sydney replied taking a large bite of one of the nuts he held, "I'm bet'n the ol' boy's got himself a nice lil' ship to haul his miscreants aroun' in, eh?"

Fayte nodded as he found a seat, "You remember this place don't you?"

"Yep…" Sydney replied pointing toward an old stone well in the distance, "…found yer scrawny arse right o'er there. Looked like ya'd been through hell…pretty nasty head wound."

"I still don't think I've thanked you enough for your help." Fayte said taking a bite of is own Pod.

Sydney chuckled, "Don't mention it mate," He said, "to be honest. Kinda amuse'n watch'n yer arse learn 'ow to walk again."

It was as they sat by enjoying their little snack that Sydney sighed, "What's on yer mind mate?" He asked, "I can see them gears move'n in that 'ead o' yers."

Fayte thought for a moment, "I think I might know why everyone is having such a hard time finding this Ghost guy…" He said, "…think about it. He shows up, then disappears, only stays out long enough to find his way to get whatever he's after. Where does he go? He has to rest at some point doesn't he?"

"I've been think'n the same thing…" The large reptile nodded, "…ol' bloke's gotta 'ave a pad somewheres. If not, he's gotta 'ave a ship…ship's gotta 'ave an engine…"

"Engine's gotta have a signature," Fayte nodded, "big question is, how do we find his?"

Sydney snapped his fingers, "I got it mate," He chuckled, "where was the last place he was spotted?"

Fayte thought for a moment, "Papetoon…if I remember Sasha's going on about it correctly. Bout a full week ago."

"Simple then…" Sydney smiled, "…we go to dis bloke named Xander. Lil' bastard can jess look through the flight records round Papetoon for that time. His has to be one of 'em right?"

Fayte laughed, "Wow. That could work. We'd have to check the signatures one by one but, eventually we would find him. Either way there aren't really that many ship's leaving that area. We could cross reference every ship's signature with the direction they were headed, chances are he wasn't headed in the same direction as anyone else. So from there we just follow till there's only one ship left."

Sydney nodded, "Beauty," He said taking a small bite of one of the nuts he held, "we'll get on it soon as we leave Sauria. Fer now, jess leave it all be. Ye know, I've been mean'n ta ask ya somethi'n," He said, "it wasn't too far from here when I found yer arse that I found that wreck of a ship. What exactly happen to ya? There weren't no problems wit the ship from what I could put together. What exactly happen?"

Fayte tossed his own Dumbledang Pod to the ground, "I told you before you left me on Xenass…I don't remember," He said, "I woke up next to that ship, and found this in my wallet…" He said tossing his identification to the large reptile, "…that I.D was the only real way of my knowing my identity at all."

Sydney nodded, "I was curious, cuz…ya see…" He said, "…I did some looking about after meet'n ya. An' this fella 'ere…" He said holding up the identification card, "…he don't exist. Not only that, I can't seem ta find any clue as ta who you actually are. Less'n yer will'n ta give me a lil' blood sample."

Fayte shook his head, "If I wanted to be who I was before the crash," He said, "why would I have that on me when I came too in the first place. The way I see it. I was probably tired of being who I was…and that's why I was running in the first place I think. I just took it as some sort of a blessing that I had no idea who I was…at least at that point I could just allow myself to forget whatever it was I wanted to stop remembering. I don't really have any regrets for not wanting to know anymore…all I want right now is to get my hands on that cash and take those girls to Corneria where they can have a better life than the one they've got."

"Yeah, I understand where yer come'n from," Sydney smiled, "sometimes I think I'd do the same…f'it weren't fer ma boy back home. Well, what'cha say we get dis show on the road?"

"Right," Fayte replied, "just one thing. Why does everyone seem to be so obsessed with this McCloud person I keep hearing about. If he left, you'd think people would learn better than to go after someone that clearly doesn't want to be found."

Sydney sighed, "If you remembered anyth'n 'bout the past. You'd understand," He said, "McCloud spent his whole life protect'n people. I think he jess wanted a normal life. Tired o' all the kill'n, he found someth'n more important to him than his job…" He chuckled, "…a woman, go figure eh?" The croc sighed, "not sure what happen, but, for some reason, they ended up split'n ways. After that, nobody ever saw McCloud again. This point, I'm sure he jess want's people to leave him alone, jess let him shrivel up an' die."

Fayte lowered his head, "Wow," He chuckled, "can't say I blame him for running off then."

"Why you bring this up mate?" Sydney asked as they headed for their ship.

Fayte scratched his chin, "He had enemies. Think about all the people that Ghost has killed so far. Did any of them have connections with McCloud?"

Sydney thought as they walked, "Bloody hell," He chuckled, "nev'a woulda thought'a that meself," He said, "hmmm…Miyu Lynx, Fay Collins, Falco Lombardi, Katt Monroe…" He seemed to think for a moment, "…ya got a point there mate. Phoenix was McClouds sweetheart a ways back…this Ghost guy missed 'is chance at the General. If'n he were ta knock off Peppy Hare…" He shook his head, "…McCloud got wind'a someth'n like that. There'd be no stop'n the boy."

Fayte laughed, "Sydney, my friend," He said patting the reptile on the shoulder, "what do you say we go pay a visit to the General? Maybe we can actually get some of this sorted out. You know if the case is they don't have his ass under lock and key."

With a hearty laugh the two made their way finally to the ship that waited for them; neither of them knew what to expect but, they did know so much. If the acting General were to be assassinated, the mass of Corneria and Lylat would look for someone to blame, and since the government was struggling to keep Ghost's presence a secret, they would have no other way to go. Civil War. Such a thing would shatter the Trinity Accord, on top of that it was something that McCloud, new or old would never be able to force himself to ignore…

**Sauria, Cape Claw**

**August 11****th**

**1032hrs**

The lone sapphire vixen lay on a small hammock she had set up not far from the ship that lay berthed near the steps that led to the Force Point Temple, clutching a pillow close to her. She'd never imagined so much could have gone so wrong because of her blood; her people's legacy was tarnished because of her need to be accepted by the Cornerians and her friends. How could Slippy, of all people, do this to her? Over and over again, she attempted to make sense out of why she felt so betrayed; after all her blood was helping cure people of disease, making them stronger…was that so horrible? She attempted to convince herself that everything was all in her head, that everything was no so bad as it seemed but, she couldn't help but feel so horribly betrayed that she actually, for the first time that she could remember, wanted to simply be alone. As if that weren't bad enough however, when she did manage to stop thinking about what had happened with her blood and this Blue Blood Project, her mind went back to her reaction to Wolf attempting to stop her. She hadn't meant to harm him, if anything he was the one person she knew that she did not wish to harm at all. It was as she lay there that the vixen sighed, sitting up…

"Nexus," She half whispered to herself, "what am I supposed to do?"

The vixen looked to the clouds, as if waiting for her answer to simply fall from the sky before something seemed to move on the wind, a very soothing, disembodied voice, "All great leaders must question themselves child."

Wiping the tears from her eyes Krystal quickly leaped from her seat, "Nexus!" She shouted, "Where are you?"

The voice chuckled, "Child…that was always your deepest problem," It said, "always looking for answers that can never be seen until you cease looking for them."

"How do you find something that you are not looking for?" She asked.

Again the voice chuckled, "You are still the little vixen that I spent all those years teaching the old ways to," It said, "you are however conflicted. You love this new life, and yet you despise it as well. You have outcast those who have wronged you, and yet you do nothing to acknowledge the wrongs that you have wrought upon yourself. Even now you suffer in solitude when such is not necessary."

Krystal felt the tears begin to burn at the corners of her eyes again, "But, I hurt Wolf. I don't think he was even trying to do anything but make sure that I was alright. I could have killed him; and his only crime was caring about how I felt."

A heavy sigh whipped through the salty air, "Krystal. We often react impulsively when threatened, it is no different than how we react when we are grief stricken," The voice said, "you are a telepath my dear but, that does not make you immune to your own emotions. I once told you that when you master your emotions you will become a master of your own mind. Mastering yourself is not the act of fighting off your emotions but, rather the act of accepting them."

The vixen looked to the ground this time, slowly falling to her knees before sitting back on her heels, "I've hurt so many people since I left home…" She said closing her eyes.

"Yes," The voice half whispered, "McCloud….I believe his name was."

Krystal rubbed her forearm across her nose, "I lost control then too; he was only trying to protect me," She said pulling a small golden ring up from the cleavage of her shirt that lay hung by a silver chain, "I found this ring when I came back. Falco told me that he had if for years, he had told Falco that he loved me before he ever even thought of telling me the same."

"Love is a very powerful thing child," The voice said, "your people taught their generations to fear it, and for good reason. Love brings conflict, pain, and death. However, it also brings great joy, happiness, and teaches one to connect with the universe through others. Like all other aspects of our lives, it has both a positive and negative pull, all things are "Qui and La" it is through understanding of this simple fact that we can learn the truth about ourselves."

Krystal found it possible to stand as she wiped her eyes once more, it seemed easier when she took into consideration that Nexus was always watching her, just as he had when she was a child, "I do not understand…" She said, "…I want to…but, I cannot."

The old, familiar voice chuckled once more, "Most would attempt to make you to understand, but, it is not something that you can force upon a mind that is not ready. You will understand however…" The voice sighed, "…it is time that you came to see your old master child. You are finally ready to finish what you started so many years ago. I will be waiting…"

As quickly as it had appeared, the voice seemed to fade into nothing more than a listless echo. All Cerinian children had a guardian, Nexus had been Krystal's guardian ever since she was nothing more than a kit; sad fact was that she remembered spending more time with him than with her own mother and father. No matter where she was, or what the problem would be, he had always been there for her. Even though the Accord knew of his people, they did not associate themselves with other races, unless it was in the rare case of a being outside of the Cerinian race that was assigned a Guardian. Despite her downtrodden state, the vixen made her way to one of the trees holding up her hammock. Oddly enough it was as she began to untie the second support rope from the tree it hung from, that her hand grazed against something in the thick bark of the tree. It was an old spot where someone had carved a single word into the tree. Her eyes went wide as she examined the letters…

"My name…" She gasped, "…Fox was here…but when?" She asked running her fingers over each letter, "this has been here for years. How could I have possibly overlooked this?" She asked shaking her head, "Nexus was right…I have lost myself…maybe it really is the right time to finish the training I started all those years ago."

Though there was no way of telling how long the training she would undergo there would take; it was now imperative that she reached Aetheria as soon as she possibly could. The hammock she was attempting to pack lost it's purpose as she carelessly cast it aside, she could always buy another later. The Dan'jas system was quite a trip from her current place, even at light speed it would take several days, possibly a week even…but, it was necessary. Hours seemed to go by as she waited in her ship for her request to the LHSA (Lylat Hyperspace Safety Authority) would go through…however it was not long afterward that she found herself dully bored. Though her ship was new, it seemed to possess a slightly enlarged fuselage, allowing for a small area to be placed behind a small door behind her seat. It was no more than a small crawlspace that led to a Murphy's Bed, but, it was more than enough for her purpose. Sleep was her only release from the fact that she was once again lost…

Throughout the days of being aboard her speeding ship, the vixen found herself thinking about the first time she began to take Nexus's training, even against her father's wishes. It was necessary for a Cerinian to learn and build their abilities to their maximum prowess during their early years of life. Though this was most often handled by the female parent, she found that her Guardian's lessons were far more informative. He taught her things then that seemed to require him to use the phrase "this skill is to be used only in the case of your own self preservation". These things included paralyzing body parts through touch, imparting her own will into the mind of a target, and even as far as to wipe a person's mind of all memories. His lessons taught her things that even her own mother, one of the most powerful warriors on Cerinia, did not know. Nexus often referred to Cerinians as a people not ready for their own power. Most of her days were filtered through her own memories, thinking back to times that made her the happiest; oddly enough most of them involved Fox McCloud. She recalled her first time at a Carnival; not quite their first date, but, it was the first time she'd ever kissed him. She chuckled at the memory of how awkward Fox had been around her after that. To a Cerinian, a kiss from a female Cerinian was often used as a diversion to the mental impression that she would leave in his mind to ward off any other females attempting the same thing. She was a bit ashamed to say that she did this, even without any other females around. She wondered often, what it would have been like had she actually told him of her feelings sooner than she had. She had of course felt moderately attracted to him on no more than a physical level when they had first met; after all he was strong, handsome, and far more daring than any male Cerinian that had ever attempted to win her favor before she had left her home.

The days that passed were nothing short of unbarrable, especially when her mind flashed back to what she had done to Wolf. She did not intend to harm him, but, with so many emotions running rampant through her mind at the time, there was simply no controlling it. She hated thinking of the fact that the force behind her unintentional attack could have easily killed him, but, there was no taking it back now. She could only hope that should she see him again, that Wolf would be willing to accept her apology for what she had done…

**Corneria, Corneria City Military Hospital**

**August 15****th**

**1308hrs**

Wolf found that he was in constant pain, the force form the vixen's sudden burst of telekinetic fury had broken four of his ribs, one of which had punctured his lung. Luckily enough, the trip to Corneria was nothing that would take too long, however, as the doctors had told him, he was more than half dead when he arrived. Wolf didn't blame Krystal for what had happened, she was distraught and to be honest he knew better than to approach her from behind at any time. The entire situation he only really blamed on himself, he should have taken the situation to her, but, as suddenly as he had acquired the information he was not really permitted any time to get things out in the open. The days that had gone by had only really given him time to worry about the young Cerinian and where it was she had gotten off to. He didn't want to think of how she would react to the tracking device that she was wearing at all times; of course the same could be said for Leon as well as Panther, or even himself. It was a simple tactic for keeping tabs on his teammates in the case of an emergency. It had nearly been a week since he had suffered his injury at the hands of his only female team mate, yet already his pain had significantly diminished. As he sat by, the lupine sat up against the headboard of his bed…

"Come on in." He called.

As the door swung open to reveal a young, silver furred Mink carrying a metal tray, the wolf smiled, "Mister O'Donnell, you have very good hearing for your age."

Wolf chuckled wincing a bit from the pain it shot through his ribs, "I'm not that old, Valerii."

"Well," She said laying the tray of covered food onto a small table which she wheeled over to him, "age is not necessarily a bad thing," She chuckled, "have you given my little offer any thought?"

Wolf sighed, "I really wish I had time for something like that Val. I haven't been on a date in ages," He said, "though it's a little uplifting to know that such a young, attractive female would show any interest in a one-eyed old mercenary like me," He smiled, "rain check?"

Valerii chuckled, holding the back of her hand over her mouth, "I haven't got any other plans," She said as she looked over readings of the many machines keeping track of his vital signs, "besides for a date with the famous Wolf O'Donnell, I think a short wait is more than worth it."

Wolf smiled, "Have you seen the other person that was injured?"

Valerii grimaced a bit, "Wolf…" She said, "…there's something about that guy. I'm not sure what it is but, he seems somewhat familiar to me. Like I've met him before."

"Have you?" Wolf asked.

The Mink shook her head, "No…" She replied, "…it was just a feeling."

Wolf nodded, "Well, either way thanks for the food," He smiled, "and could you tell Leon that I need to see him about something? It's sort of important."

It was as the young Mink made her way out of the room that a tall, thin bodied, lengthy reptile entered the room. The light green scaled chameleon was clearly what a normal person could have called creepy. His shifting eyes always seemed to be searching his surroundings at all times, and his thin, bony fingers always seemed to be a bit twitchy…

"Leon…" Wolf said as the animal sat near the far window.

The chameleon shook his head, "I'm sorry Wolf. Once she left, her trail went cold. Just another wonderful trick she picked up from McCloud."

"Speaking of whom?"

Leon again shook his head while crossing his legs and resting his hand on his knee, "No. None of the recent John Does come even close to a match," He said, "I suppose that is some level of good news, wherever McCloud is in all of this, at least he is not in a morgue."

"What about that other list I asked you for?" Wolf asked.

Leon sighed, "Seven million four hundred forty-six thousand, nine hundred fifty-eight listings of John Doe in the last six years. That includes Dan'jas, Lylat, Stygian, and Krazoa. It could take quite some time to cross reference all of them. Those are of course the ones that died of unnatural causes."

"Not all…" Wolf said shaking his head, "…just foxes that should shorten the list a bit. Just do it by one of his characteristics after another till you whittle it down to nothing."

Leon nodded, "That could take considerably less time, but, why the sudden interest in McCloud's disappearance?"

"Ghost…" Wolf replied, "…whatever he's doing he's looking for McCloud in the process. I don't know the connection but, he's calling McCloud out…and if I'm right about where this has all been going, he's got one target in mind next…" He said, "…Krystal. Whoever Ghost is. I'm betting that he knows McCloud well enough to know that if she's in danger Fox'll come running."

Leon narrowed his eyes in thought, "If he knows McCloud that well, then he'd know what McCloud's capable of when he feels that his family is being threatened."

"You don't get it Leon, this isn't about McCloud," Wolf replied, "I think it's more along the lines of him showing publicly that not even McCloud can actually stand in his way. He's gonna draw him out. After that I'm not sure what'll happen."

**Xenass Space Colony, Upper City**

**Dock 37-A**

**August 18****th**

**0406hurs**

Fayte found himself sitting by while watching a young light red furred fox work over a keyboard, while Sydney rested across from him on another small bench of the little ship that rested in the hanger. Xander was not exactly what Fayte had expected; he was a younger animal in his late twenties at the most. His markings were no different than you would find on any average vulpine, black socks about his hands and feet, with black ears. He wore nothing more than a pair of baggy black jeans at the moment, something he claimed was a style he often wore while staying aboard his ship. It seemed that most recently the young hacker had found himself stuck on Xenass, at least until he could find the replacement part that he needed for his ship…

"Look I'm sorry you two had to come all this way to find me but," Xander laughed looking back from the seat he sat in which was surrounded by transparent glass monitor screens, "this ol' piece of shit here blew a primary drive coil. It ain't goin' a damn place till I can get this ol' bitch fixed. Apparently the order for my parts got held back a little bit."

"Well mate," Sydney chuckled, "I always keep yer com channel on hand, jess in case. Ye' might no be much o' a fighter but, I ain't seen a thing ya can't track with that damn computer."

Xander laughed out loud, "Well I've been working with these fucking things since I was old enough to crawl," He replied, "if it's out there and it's in the system I can find it. Sorry about that McCloud comment by the way…" He said looking to Fayte, "…he was a good guy, a good friend of mine too. It just amazed me how much you look like him, but, your prints don't match, so there's no chance that you're him. Wish you were though, if Fox was around this Ghost guy would be six feet under by now."

"Yeah," Fayte replied, "well how much longer is this gonna take cuz I'm getting pretty hungry."

Xander lay back in his seat taking his hands away from the many keyboards around him, "Well there are more than three million flights leaving Papetoon on a daily basis. That's not including LCI operatives, military personnel, and Viper units. I mean this whole method is sound and all but, you need to understand that this is going to take some time…" Xander seemed to pause for a moment, "…or maybe not. Tell me Sydney according to Lylat annual reports, where is ninety percent of Papetoon traffic headed?"

The hulking reptile scratched his chin for a moment, "Well it's an export planet. Send out mainly farmed produce; all flights from there usually head toward the inner parts of Lylat."

Xander nodded, "Right because they travel with the goods and head inward toward the more advanced cities," He pointed out, "now I've got three ships that headed in different directions in about the time frame that you two are asking for. One was headed to Dan'jas; but that serial number checks out as belonging to the LCI for an inspector that was send to monitor the black market on Rittera. The other one that I don't think is very likely either, is registered to Beltino's Gate Station, and was headed to the new station that's being constructed in the Stygian system…" He paused, "…the third here is the one that makes the least amount of sense. It broke orbit heading toward a moon in the Krazoa system, and another ship left not even six hours later. Completely different signature. That ship is…" He said as he followed the processes on his screens, "…looks like it was headed for Corneria before it's fuel cells ran dry. It was here for a few hours the other day apparently but, it was docked in Undercity before it took off. It's still in flight on a course to Corneria right now. If you two leave now I might be able to pull some strings and get the ship held back in customs until you two can get there, if you make a jump as soon as you get away from Xenass you might be able to get there in just enough time. It's a fighter, easy enough to spot; apparently it's an old Pegasus class Arspace model. Haven't even heard of one of those in flight in my lifetime."

Sydney was the first off the ship, "Listen Xander we're going to stay in contact with you. Once that bastard lands give us his docking registration and we'll get back to you with the results once we find him."

Xander nodded, "Fuck yeah. This shit's get'n exciting, hell I'd go with you but, I need this computer she's special. I'll be in contact and I'll report anything to you that seems out of place."


End file.
